Does the grass grow all year round in the Bushveld?

[Pipirr]

Does the grass grow all year round in the Bushveld?

I was approached about taking part in a super-secret research project in the Bushveld in South Africa. It would involve a whole lot of vegetation sampling, but the company in question wants to go during the South African winter. It's a problem for the sampling part if the plants are all dry, cold, dead or quiescent. But are they, or is the climate mild enough that they keep on growing?

So far as I can tell, temperatures range from 5-25C, and below zero in the higher elevations, but I don't know if the cold days are enough to stop plant growth altogether or how many one might expect in a row.

Does anybody have any insight into the growing seasons of the Bushveld?

 

[casebro]

Check for rainfall/dry/wet seasons? No water, no growth.

In imperial Valley, California, they get 16 cuttings of hay per year.
Hay= Sudan grass. With irrigation from the Colorado river, 10 feet per year.

 

[Pipirr]

You're right; 'dry season' is the key term. I hadn't thought to look at that before. Winter is the dry season, so it doesn't look good.

Thanks!

 

[Deetee]

I used to live in Zimbabwe. During the dry cooler winter months there is very little grass growth, so I expect there might be even less in SA which is generally colder. However, Zim is at altitude on a central continental plateau, which might affect matters somewhat. In SA rainfall is variable nearer the coasts, so some areas may be quite different to the situation in ZIM. In KwaZulu Natal there seems to be more year-round fertility.

There were several research stations in Zim that did sterling agricultural work. These included Grasslands Research Station in Marondera, and Gwebi Agricultural College near Harare.

I suspect that any attempts to contact these institutions now is a forlorn hope. They will be derelict, having been abandoned both financially and physically, stripped of any equipment, their fertile land decimated by pro-Mugabe squatters, and their staff long since departed for fresh pastures. A crying shame.
......Genocidal maniac.

 

[Pipirr]

Thanks, Deetee. As far as i can tell, during the dry season/winter, the bushveld turns brown as the grass all dries out, so there won't be enough growth at all. I'll just have to time things carefully to get there when it starts growing again.

I appreciate your sentiment about Zim. In 1998, I met a young and hopeful veterinarian researcher from Zimbabwe, while I was studying in Denmark. She told me a lot about Zimbabwe and her research, and was really eager to get back there. I think by a year and a half later, it was all wrecked. So very sad. I still wonder what happened to her.