TheImprovement ofTropical and Subtropical Rangelands

GRAZING MANAGEMENT 127
FIGURE 6-6 Cattle gruing eutern Senegal rangeland ahonly after the rainy
Huon. Becauae the range ia overuaed during the rainy Huon, theae animals will
be foreed to lurvive on very little forage during the next nine-month dry leuon.
Degradation and abandonment of the land will loon follow. (J. O'Rourke)
stage of plants also varies over time because of weather conditions.
Because of grazing history and weather conditions, it may be more
important to defer grazing in some periods than in others. Range
units should be grazed when the key plants are damaged least by
grazing and when the forage best meets the nutritional requirements
of the animals. In many cues, this means grazing in no set or
predetermined sequence.
Many indigenous pastoral systems in Africa and Asia provide
excellent examples of flexible response to changing rangeland conditions.
A description ofthe pre-Colonial management system centered
in the Masina region of Mali, prepared by Malian range scientist
M.-L. Ba, follows this chapter.
Grazing schemes should also be tailored to conform to a variety of
vegetation types. soil types, physical facilities, and herd-management
plans. There may be considerable variation among ranch operations
in the specific details of operating a certain grazing scheme. In some
instances, it may be desirable to use a particular grazing system
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