Factors affecting the management of cattle grazing distribution in northern Australia: preliminary observations on the effect of paddock size and water points

Abstract

Achieving more uniform grazing at landscape and paddock scales is seen as an important management objective by pastoralists in northern Australia, but it is difficult to attain in practice. This paper presents a brief review of some key factors to be considered in attempts to modify grazing distribution in extensive rangelands by drawing on the preliminary results of a project that is investigating several options for achieving more uniform grazing. Subdividing the landscape into smaller paddocks and, to a lesser extent, installing additional water points in large paddocks are effective in distributing grazing more widely across the landscape. However, these approaches are less effective in achieving uniform grazing within paddocks, and areas of concentrated use still occur even in small paddocks. To achieve spatial grazing objectives, it is necessary to use management tools that operate at the appropriate scale. Attaining more even use within paddocks should therefore be viewed as a separate management objective, requiring different techniques, to obtaining more effective use of the landscape as a whole. Integrating the use of several spatial management tools that act at different scales is likely to be most effective in improving grazing distribution. Our findings also highlight the importance of understanding paddocks in terms of the spatial arrangement of forage resources and their acceptability and quality in relation to water points and other landscape features. Differences between individual cattle in the way they use the landscape are important in producing more uniform use in larger paddocks and may also offer other opportunities for improving the use of landscape resources overall. Finally, the implications of more uniform use for livestock production and other land use values should be considered, with the protection of biodiversity values potentially requiring special management arrangements where more even use is achieved.

The importance of grasslands for animal production and other functions: a review on management and methodological progress in the tropics

“…Metera et al (2010) concluded from an extensive review that animal grazing can be a tool to maintain or restore biodiversity of open landscape and contribute to the aesthetic and leisure. In extensive tropical rangelands of northern Australia, Hunt et al (2007) suggested that key factors which modify distribution of cattle include fencing to divide the landscape into paddocks and provision of water points to distribute grazing more evenly across the landscape. Rapid regeneration of lands can occur, although the derived grasslands may differ from the original grasslands (Jepson, 2005;Bond and Parr, 2010).…”

“…According to Suttie et al (2005), pastoral systems in dry zones with annual growing periods of less than 120 days are capable of regulating themselves for long periods. There is a need for research to develop agro-environmental schemes to protect grassland biocecenoses (Hunt et al, 2007).…”

Sustainable management for rangelands in a variable climate: evidence and insights from northern Australia

“…However, estimating LTCC in large spatially heterogeneous paddocks is challenging. Water points are often widely spaced, with cattle having to walk distances of 3 to 8 km to graze (Mott et al, 1984;Hunt et al, 2007), resulting in patchy use. In the large paddocks of the Northern Territory, for example, cows graze anything from 85% of smaller paddocks to only 49% of larger paddocks (Hunt et al, 2011).…”

Herd-scale measurements of methane emissions from cattle grazing extensive sub-tropical grasslands using the open-path laser technique

“…The savannas and rangelands of Australia are representative of many extensive grasslands around the world and support approximately half the Australian beef † E-mail: ed.charmley@csiro.au a Present address: Meat and Livestock Australia,Level 2,527 Gregory Terrace,Fortitude Valley,QLD 4006,Australia. herd of 27 million head (Meat and Livestock Australia, 2014). They are characterised by marked seasonal variations in productivity, are dominated by grasses of low nutritive value and support very low stocking densities (Ash et al, 1997;Hunt et al, 2007). CH 4 emissions from ruminants grazing these regions of Australia have been estimated to account for 4% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions or 23 million tonnes CO 2 -equivalent/year (Australian Greenhouse Emissions Information System, 2014).…”