Response of tall grassveld to different intensities,seasons and frequencies of clipping

The seasonal production of herbage by Tall. Grassveld declined with increased frequency of cutting in summer. Even a single summer cutting treatment reduced yields compared with no summer cutting. The effect of such a single cutting treatment varied, however, with the time at which it was applied. Early summer cutting reduced yields more than did late summer cutting.

Herbage yields declined as cutting height increased from 1½ to 4½ inches. This effect was associated with undesirable morphological changes in many of the constituent plants of the sward. High cutting induced tiller development at higher nodes than did low cutting, resulting in a lack of contact between the elevated tiller bases and the soil and in the elimination of differences between the proportions of each such tiller harvested and left by cutting to different heights.