Before 1990s, Mongolia had about 25 million heads of livestock including horse, camel, goat, sheep and cattle. In December 2013, the total livestock was counted as approximately 45 million heads. Therefore, pasture and forage availability plays key role in pastoral livestock in Mongolia.
According to the Government
resolution #190 about Preventing natural disasters including drought and zud, pasture carrying capacity in winter and
spring 2014-2015 have been recently estimated by the Institute
of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (IMHE) based on maximum biomass
of pasture, number of animals, area of pasture and duration of grazing at the smallest administration (soum and bag) level. Generally, summer of 2014 was good in terms of biomass
production because of relatively rainy weather.
Figure. Pasture carrying capacity for winter and spring 2014-2015
Source:
NAMHEM web site : http://www.tsag-agaar.mn
As the figure
presents, 60 % of pasture has excessive resource (up to 50 % of capacity of
pasture) and 15 % of pasture is sufficient (51-100%) for animals. 15% of
pasture has exceeding animals by 100-300 % and the remaining 10 % of pasture
has extreme exceeding animals (more than 300%) than its carrying capacity.
Consequently, 70 % of the total pasture would have enough pasture resources for
winter and spring 2014-2015. However, 30 % of the area where pasture capacity exceeds would have challenging
situation in terms of pasture. In these areas, additional measures such as moving
other areas (otor), additional hay
mowing and preparation of supplement forage and other management actions and highly recommended to prevent animal losses in winter and spring.
For more detailed information, please refer to Institute
of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment.
