A model for estimating long-term grazing capacity

The calculation of the grazing capacity requires the consideration of factors affecting it. Due to the effective factors, the long-term grazing capacity model was designed, and then the capacity of the rangelands was calculated. Grazing capacity was calculated by the proposed model in four steps including estimating the average good production, calculation of available metabolic energy, the daily requirement of the animal unit and grazing capacity. Due to the drought condition of habitats and fluctuation of forage production in different years, one cannot calculate grazing capacity with once production measurement for the long-term. Hence, the average good production of habitats was determined and based on that, long-term grazing capacity was calculated. The average good production of Golestan Kouh, Vardast, and Pashmakan habitats in the statistical period of 6-7 years was estimated to be 425, 233.8 and 343.3 kg/ha, which are related to normal years in terms of rainfall. The grazing capacity of habitats in a quarterly period of four months was calculated to be 0.8, 0.3 and 0.5 animal unit per hectare so that if there is a drought for 12 consecutive months, there will be no damage to vegetation. Meanwhile, there is not much damage to the beneficiary and he will not have to sell too much of his livestock. The area needed for grazing of an animal unit in the rangelands was suggested to be 1.3, 3.3 and 2 hectare. This amount is recommended to be one hectare for a 30-year period based on a common method in range management plans. This indicates the need to pay attention to the factors affecting the grazing capacity and emphasizes the application of the proposed model in order to calculate the rangeland capacity.