Livestock Management and Production

This work package will investigate the argument that enclosure facilitates destocking, by increasing livestock output per head so that owners can afford to keep fewer animals. The objectives of this work are:

• To assess current livestock management systems in each of the study areas and field sites representing the gradient between enclosed and open rangelands;
• To describe levels of livestock productivity within enclosed and unenclosed rangelands;
• To estimate the feed inputs within the livestock management systems identified;
• To highlight and support innovative and locally-accepted husbandry practices that maintain sustainable livestock management and production systems;
• To assess the implications for animal health of rangeland enclosures.

The work will be carried out at up to 5 field sites in each study areas. Households identified from census and other information at the outset of the project will be visited at the start of the project and basic statistical data on the prevailing livestock husbandry practices within each of the proposed study sites will be collected. This will form the first enumeration level of a nested approach and will provide an overview of livestock management and production across the gradient of enclosed and open rangeland systems present in the study areas.

Based on this information, a stratification of households will be carried out to provide a representative sub-sample of small, medium and large livestock enterprises within the study areas. These households will form the core project sample from which all data will be collected. A management and husbandry overview of issues such as fertility, calving/lambing/kidding patterns, mortality rates, offtake, herd/flock turnover, stocking rates, feed and veterinary inputs, meat and wool outputs and prevalent animal health issues will then be carried out. This information will be collected during visits to the households biannually throughout the project in spring and autumn.

Participatory assessments of the herder’s own characteristics of herd/flock productivity will also be elicited and used to describe livestock productivity.