Resource
Plan your drought forage buffer before dry spells push up feed bills and stress your deer.
Rainfall on dryland veld in the Karoo, Highveld and Midlands is unpredictable, whichever deer the camps hold under permit.
Late rain, browning veld or falling dam levels are signs to check your feed reserves and forage blocks against the next hard patch. An El Niño outlook makes buffer planning especially important: waiting until the veld is bare means higher costs and risk to animal welfare.
Map out your forage reserves, supplement options and grazing rotation on the printable worksheet before you need them. Worked steps show how to assess your standing veld, silage or hay stocks, and what supplementary feeds can be brought in if natural grazing fails. There is a space to record your typical pasture recovery gaps and compare the needs of different deer species, from fallow to sika.
To use the plan, walk your camps with the worksheet and update the standing forage estimate. Fill in what you have in reserve: bales, cubes, silage or browse. List out your backup options and note any water points that may fail. Trigger points tell you when to shift herds or start supplementing, before the animals lose condition. There is also a section for jotting down your regular feed merchant contacts and backup plans for power to your cold rooms or water trough pumps.
Two common mistakes are underestimating how quickly veld can go from green to bare in strong berg winds or a hot, dry spell, and over-relying on last-minute concentrate when prices spike. Another pitfall is not updating the reserve estimate after moving stock or cutting hay, so the plan no longer matches what is in the camps.
If you need a copy of the drought buffer plan, send a message through our contact form and ask for the printable drought buffer worksheet. We send it as a PDF, free of charge. If you want help filling it in or advice on your farm’s buffer, mention your region and our team will put you in touch with the right person.
