Proceedings of a workshop on research methodologies Medan ...

Strip grazing
A large number <strong>of</strong> animal are confined in a small strip <strong>of</strong> land by either a
herdsman or electric fence. This is a useful tactic when excessive amounts <strong>of</strong> forage
are available in the field and there is a need to keep weeds under control in the shortest
period <strong>of</strong> time. An exarrole includes a herd <strong>of</strong> 350 Kedah-Kelantan cattle confined in
a 12 ha-strip under 4-year-old oil palm. Within a day, the field was satisfactory weeded.
Cut-and-carry system
Cut-and-carry for stall feeding (zero grazing system) is useful when dealing with
certain physiological stages <strong>of</strong> animals (i.e. the sick, late pregnancy, just born lambs
and their ewes); and when the tree crops are still too young as to allow grazing.
Further, planting <strong>of</strong> improved pastures in the open, may complement the inadequate
forage either quantitatively or qualitatively under tree crops. Coconuts and oil palm
require high potassium for normal growth and production, so the planting <strong>of</strong>
aggressive grasses such as Guinea and Napier which demand high K (Manidool, 1984;
Arganosa, 1988) may compete K with plains. Hence, adequate K fertilization should
be applied. If improved pastures have to be planted under tree canopies, species with
prostrate characteristics are prefered to prevent competition with tree crops and to
facilitate grazing. The negative effect <strong>of</strong> a short life span has to be considered since
most tropical grasses are moderately tolerant to shade (Shelton et al., 1987).
Monitoring <strong>of</strong> Forage Resources
In order to understand the forage situation within the plantation, the total
herbage, the growth and the botanical composition need to be monitored periodically.
Such records are critical for controlling noxious weeds, not palatable to grazing
animals, and for the control <strong>of</strong> the nutrient status <strong>of</strong> overall herbage under grazing.
Random monitoring <strong>of</strong> the above information 2 to 3 times a year will be sufficient to
assess overall feed resources in the field. Total herbage can be estimated thrd'igh
random cutting, while caged forage will be able to give some idea about regrowth
levels. The Dry Weight Ranking method (DWR)/Botanal method will also show the
changes in botanical composition <strong>of</strong> forages with time. The Malaysian experience with
Asystasiaintrusa, which dominated more than 60%/0 <strong>of</strong> the total forage and is suspected
to cause health problems in sheep, is one <strong>of</strong> the typical examples on forage monitoring
(Wong et al., i988). Other noxious weeds, such as Clidemia hirta and Eupatorium
odoratum which are expensive to control, were monitored over a period <strong>of</strong> 22 year
<strong>of</strong> animal grazing (C.P. Chen, unpublished results).
EFFECT OF FORAGE AND ANIMALS ON TREE CROPS
Information on the effects <strong>of</strong> forage and animal on tree crops is not readily
available. Itwas reported that the growth <strong>of</strong> rubber, in terms <strong>of</strong> height and girth size,
was affected (Table 4) by planting pastures around the circle encroaching to 1 m and
1.5 m away from the tree (Dissanyake and Waidyanatha, 1987). Researchers in Nigeria
have made attempts to compensate for increased width between rows by decreasing
spacing within the oil palm row, which led to reduced yields. Normally, spaced
individual palms within widespread rows yielded slightly more than the normal spacing
(Mack, 1988). It was also noted that there was some negative effect on oil palm fresh fruit
bunch (FFB) yield recorded in a spacing-grazing experiment where comparison <strong>of</strong>
normal triangular spacing was made with various densities <strong>of</strong> rectangular spacing
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