MID-KAROO Express was invited to join farmers and scientists in Middelburg on Tuesday, August 8, for a day of interesting talks.
Local high school teacher, Isabel Frewen, introduced Professor Nikolaus J Kuhn from the faculty of natural sciences at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
Kuhn is conducting a research programme on surface processes and its role in interaction of Earth’s spheres.
This type of research is becoming increasingly important as soil erosion is a worldwide environmental problem.
Specific soil types and processes are being studied, and Kuhn, colleagues and students have been visiting the Kompasberg area for this purpose since 2013.
He shared with the gathering some interesting findings and explained some of the technology used in their research.
Justin du Toit followed Kuhn with a talk on rainfall, grass and the influence of livestock grazing practices based on research spanning several decades at various sites on Grootfontein Agricultural College.
Du Toit warned that research indicates bad grazing practices can damage farmland to such an extent that not even 20 years of resting such veld will result in recovery.
The Great Karoo has seen a dramatic increase in useful grasses, and scientists expect to continue seeing an increase in annual rainfall of more than 10%, which in turn will sustain the increase in grassland.
Du Toit also suggested farmers practice healthy grazing principles such as rest, rotation and post-drought management to best preserve healthy soil and flora.
Lisa Hebbelman is currently working towards her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is studying Karoo dwarf shrubs, how they survive and how they are influenced by rainfall, weather patterns, grazing, fire and frost. She showed interesting visuals on the difference in veld grazed by angora goats on the one side, and dorper sheep in an adjacent camp.
What Mid-Karoo Express found most interesting, was that angora goats have a far less damaging grazing effect on veld than dorpers, while one would expect the opposite to be true of veld grazed by goats.
She confirmed the notion that “the veld remembers”, and that bad grazing practices will leave a lasting legacy of degraded soil.
Matthew van Lingen, a local farmer, shared insights on environmental monitoring and how technology can be implemented to identify better farming practices.
Following these talks, the group went on a site inspection at Grootfontein to witness some of the findings shared earlier that day.