knowledge and worldview and their role in managing
4.3. Utilization, dosing and apportionment of the key ecosystem service: grass forage
The livestock would go for the tasty bits all at once, but I just herd them that way, let’s go and munch a little here, because, well, this belongs to the puszta just as well, that’ll do no harm to you, you just don’t like it so much.
Lajos Elekes, cattle herder
The volume of biomass produced on pasture land is mainly determined by the prevailing weather conditions of the given year. In most years there are meteorological reasons why pasture biomass does not reach its full potential. Therefore, the main consideration in apportionment of the land is to last until the end of the year. The well-being of the livestock is of paramount importance for herders; it determines how much they can produce.
It is always the key, to keep the cattle well, to the best extent possible. Because it is apparent, I’m a herder: therefore the livestock could get along in my care [physical condition]. However, I also would have to apportion that parcel. For this to work you need high quality, nutritious forage.
You have to look for the best for them, in winter they would eat the sour grass, because no better is found.
Herders know the properties of specific plant species well.
The first thing I look for is what kind of plants populate the pasture. / Each season has its own grass, which is the best and useful at that time. / Besides, you would know in which part of the vegetation period is the kind of weed or grass that sheep would like best.
In other words, they would adapt to both the composition of the vegetation and the spatio-temporal potentials of use in their daily, monthly and annual grazing schedule.
Photo 4.1 Herders not only use but also improve their pastures by conciously adapting the grazing regime: “I deliberately let the litter and tall grass trample in late spring after a wet year to get fresh second growth in late summer in a droughty year,” József Kis, cattle herder
Herders manage grasslands to ensure a diverse diet for their livestock and a varied and gradual stress to the pasture.
When I could see that the livestock would not graze that manner any more, they are bored, I picked them and took them to another area. And I kept on trying to vary pastures not to get the animals bored. / We had them graze the edges around. Then we had them tread the middle and last we laid [i.e. the stock was left spread out on the land as they wished], well, it grazed wherever it wanted, but before we grazed them in segments. We apportioned them with this partitioned grazing.
In the implementation of partitioning, electric or fixed fencing is preferred by those who manage small amounts of land.
A grazing pen [paddock] is best. If you have 8–10 grazing pens, it can be nicely apportioned.
Fencing is good, because the sheep would graze whenever it wanted, and eat out all corners. When you graze them on pastures, you can’t just to push the sheep into a corner to eat it barren. / The livestock would not go around the whole lot, only a portion which is partitioned for them. What was grazed for two weeks, in the next two weeks will go to the other side. That [side] can take a rest, they would not graze it barren. Land is able to regenerate. / Maybe electric fencing is good for partitioning. You partition the pasture and give it to them in portions.
Herders graze in a diversified way, not only on an annual basis, but on a daily basis as well.
Then my father told me so, it’s clattering [dry steppe] in the morning and clapping [wetlands]
in the afternoon. So we graze the dry one in the morning. If you feed them well in the morning, they will only be nibbling in the afternoon, so we just lash them out to the reeds [let into the reedy parts], because it would stand it better than hunger. / If I let it to the cattle, it would seek the juicy bits. If that is gone, the worthless is left over, which is not grazed. Therefore, when I turn out in the morning, I try to push them gently, not rudely, to the direction I want them to go. / If I let them there in the morning, I would go elsewhere in the afternoon.
Typically, pastures are also allotted according to their respective distances from livestock holdings, resting and night rest sites. They adjust to the circadian and seasonal rhythm of the animals.
Zsolt Molnár
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I would not put it in at midday [to rest for noon]. By the middle of the year [July], I would get the farthest point. / In the beginning, I’d rather be further up, and when the pasture is getting short, warm days are coming, I’d try to stay here around the farmstead.
They adapt to the biological cycles of the animals, in particular for sheep.
Closer parts are usually left for lambing, the ones around the shed. The best bits are left mainly for the pregnant ewes. / I’d try to save those places which are closer to the farm for the lambing season, so that lambs would not have to be carried in from far away.
In the background, well-being of the livestock is the key consideration, since soil is more fertile in the surroundings of livestock establishments, and more nutritious plants grow on it. The area surrounding the shed is always left for the ones with young, the lambed ewes. Ewes with lambs benefit from this, and the proximity of the buildings provide shelter against the rigours of weather too.
In the summer seasons weather conditions are usually quite extreme recently. I try to make grazing so that drive them out earlier and get them grazed by 8 or 9 a.m., ‘cause by eight o’clock the sheep would start to stick together [in a single lot, due to the warm weather].
In summary: the primary consideration of pasture apportioning was to last until the end of the grazing season. This was followed by the well-being of animals, sparing of pasture and convenience and comfort for both herders and livestock. And there was another important aspect: nature conservation. One of the herders, working on a conservation area, described an entirely self-invented pasturing system with nature conservation objectives (Box 4.1).
Gábor Balogh
Photo 4.2 If herders and conservationists respect each other, they can efficiently work together for better conservation management.
“It depends, which kind of a flower is there, you have a look at it when it opens and before or after you put livestock on the habitat.
You would have them munch it, graze, tread it thoroughly. The flower would feel better afterwards,” László Engi, cattle herder (on this picture, the grass was not properly grazed last autumn).