Regenerative Farming | Farm Witpan

Farm Facts

DESCRIPTION

Southern Kalahari Sandveld.

ENTERPRISE

Cattle and sheep.

PROPERTY SIZE

8900 hectares.

FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF AREA

Kalahari Sandveld with pans and dunes; several encroaching bush species.

AVERAGE ANNUAL RAINFALL AND VARIABILITY

250 mm.

ELEVATION

1200 metres above sea level.

OWNED OR RENTED

Owned; full-time management.

MOTIVATION FOR CHANGE AND APPROACH

Danie began to farm in 2003. Until 2012, a permanent, lightly-stocked selective grazing system was used, with about 50-75 ewes in every camp. In 2012, he realised that this was a big mistake. There was very little variety in the veld, mainly annual grasses and a few unpalatable perennial sub-climax grasses. The animals were in poor condition and it was a struggle to produce good slaughter lambs from the veld.

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MAIN INNOVATION

Increasing numbers in a herd; keeping fewer groups of animals; higher density grazing with fast moves; longer rest periods for camps; and using diff erent management tools for diff erent circumstances (conditions).

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In the summer, Danie endeavours to return livestock to the grazed area at least once to make use of the regrowth.

Mouse plagues and virtually no germination have affected 5000 ha of the farm, mostly on land where high- density grazing was not practiced. The cause of this is still not clear, because it occurs on all management types.

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Mobile electric fences are used to create fast moves at relatively high density. To save costs, mobile water troughs are used with the mobile electric fence camps.

Key Results

Regeneration is taking place in the high-density camps with
denser soils.
Valuable perennial grasses are returning on harder soils.
Cow pregnancy is an average of 91% and sheep weaning is 90%.
The high-pressure grazing of big herds on a small section of veld automatically allows for longer periods of rest for the other areas of the farm as well as the areas that have already been grazed.
The grazing has stimulated the better-quality grasses and the climax grasses, which recuperate relatively quickly with rest.

Farm Witpan

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Danie Visser uses various practices for diff erent conditions. He uses high density, fast moves in the wet season but keeps smaller herds at calving and lambing times. He focuses more on rest, animal performance and the establishment of favoured plants than on fi xed timing. When you graze, it is about the animals; when you rest, it is about the plants. Currently, the sheep-cattle ratio is 60:40. As the quantity and quality of the veld improves (more climax grasses), he would like to change the sheep-cattle ratio to 40:60.

Key Tips

Make sure you get good advice before making changes. The advice of Ian Mitchell Innes and Louis Du Pisani was very instrumental in helping us to establish a sustainable plan to improve our veld and at the same time have good animal performance.
Electrify your boundary fence to control what happens inside.
Farm with well-adapted, early-maturing animals.
Watch the triangle (hongerholte) on the top left-hand side between the rump and spine to make sure the animals are full before ruminating (it should not be hollow), and make sure the dung is soft with an indented dimple. This ensures good animal performance, which is always your number one priority.
It was not necessary to use the entire farm with this grazing approach. We were able to start with the best camps and improve these with good management.
Combine herds to give plants time to recover. However, try to keep grass growing and of good quality by returning to re-graze the camps lightly in the growing season.
Reduce wildlife numbers.
Selectively thin areas that need it.
Use mobile electric fences and mobile water troughs for your camps.
Rather than erecting permanent camps, install more pipelines.
Where perennials are returning, camp these areas off to allow their recovery, if needed.
Pack collected bushes in an around gullies to slow the fl ow of water and to keep water on your land.
Aim for an 8/5 package, which means that the animal should look as though you have packed eight kilogrammes of sugar into a fi ve-kilogram bag.
Sell well-adapted animals as veld bulls and veld rams from the farm.