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INTRODUCTION.

Grasslands Research Station is one of the four Livestock and Pasture Research Station in Zimbabwe under the Ministry of Agriculture in the Department of Research and Extension (AREX). The station is located 67 km South East of Harare (Latitude 18° 11’S, Longitude 31°30’E) at an altitude of 1200 m, along the Harare–Mutare road. The farm is 2700 ha in extent subdivided into 300ha arable, 2200ha grazing and 200ha of woodland, roads, buildings and wasteland. Mean annual rainfall is in the range 600 to 900 mm with about 80%falling between November and March and is usually reliable to support intensive mixed crop-livestock production. Mean maximum temperatures of 31.1⁰C occur in October and mean minimums of 8.4⁰C in July. Localized frosts are common from May to mid August. Day-length varies from about eleven hours in June to about thirteen hours in December. Soils are predominantly acidic (pH 4.5) deep brown, fine, loamy kaolinitic thermic Typic Kandiustalf (USDA) sands of low fertility derived from granite. The vegetation is wooded shrub land with Terminalia sericea and Burkea africana, in association with various Combretum and Acacia species. Brachystegia spiciformis, Julbernadia globiflora and Brachystegia boehmii may occur in places. Grasslands are dominated by species of Hyparrhenia.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Grasslands came into being in 1929 when the government bought a 1282ha piece of land from a private estate, in order to satisfy the growing demand for agricultural research in the high rainfall-sandveld region of the country. Work initially started with experiments with tobacco, other crops such as wheat and fertilization of pastures. The remaining part of the station was farmed commercially for the purposes of demonstration. However over the past 25 years and to date, the main thrust of the station research work has focused on developing appropriate dry season feeding strategies, feed conservation methods and pasture development for sustained ruminant livestock production in natural region II, III and IV. The specific areas of research in which the different sections are engaged are: home grown legume forage as a substitute for bought-in protein concentrates, use of crop residues as dry season feed supplements, low cost pen fattening rations based on home grown feeds, sorghum as substitute for maize in cereal silages for dairy cattle feeding, screening and evaluation of tropical grasses. In line with the (1995-2000) Zimbabwe agricultural policy, there has been a shift in emphasis of research towards small holder farming sector. The Station became actively involved in on farm participatory research initially with small holder dairy schemes in Chikwaka, Rusitu Honde, Nharira and Marirangwe by attracting SACCAR and ILCA funding. Work was extended to Wedza resettlement area for dairy and Wedza communal areas for beef fattening on forage legumes through ACIAR funding. Further work on silage making and livestock feeding is currently being done with agroforestry in Manicaland and Mashonaland through EU Project.

Grasslands Research Station is managed by the Head of Station with the support of 6 professional, 6 technical, 3 administration and 119 support staff (see attached list) The organizational structure is set up into 2 research sections namely Livestock research and Pasture research, and three support sections namely Farm section, Chemistry section and Administration section.

For ease of administration the Station is divided into two main research sections dealing with livestock, and pastures and three service sections (Chemistry Laboratory , the Administrative and the Estate Section) which serve the needs of the research sections and deal with normal day-to-day farming activities and station maintenance. There are also a number of facilities and support services, including a conference room, a library and experiment units for small and large ruminant livestock.

The goal of Grasslands Research Station is to improve ruminant livestock production through organized scientific laboratory and field studies in ruminant livestock nutrition and forage production. Special consideration is directed towards investigating strategies for improving dry season feed supply, effective use of crop residues, developing appropriate fodder conservation techniques and forage production. The following means are employed by the station to accomplish its goal:

Production and provision of legume and grass seed for dryland and irrigated pastures every season.