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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2009
The effect of stocking-rate was measured on growth of indigenous oxen grazing Hyparrhenia veld and dambo. Stocking-rate had a relatively small effect on weight gain per ox in the rainy season when veld was relatively nutritious, but had a significant linear effect and a lesser quadratic effect on weight loss per ox in the dry season. Oxen stocked leniently on veld in the dry season lost less weight than heavily stocked oxen. Oxen fed a protein supplement, maintained or gained weight when grazing veld in the dry season even at high stocking-rates.
In long-term trials, compensatory growth so affected cattle weight gains that heavily stocked oxen which had large weight losses in the dry season compared with leniently stocked oxen, had greater weight gains in the following rainy season. Stocking-rate had a highly significant, linear effect on cumulative weight gain per ox, which was more evident on dambo grazing than on Hyparrhenia veld.