Rangelands covering about 61 to 67% of the total land area of Ethiopia have herbaceous and woody vegetation layers. Browse production, browsing capacity and implications on bush encroachment and livestock feed resources have not been investigated in the Bo rana rangelands of Ethiopia in contrast to the many studies of biomass production and grazing capacity of the herbaceous layer. Thus, the objective of this research was to determine browse production and browsing capacity and the implications on bush encroachment and livestock feed. Eighty-six rangeland sites were identified to collect data on woody vegetation species, density, plant height, heights of maximum canopy diameters, heights of first leaves or potential leaf bearing stems, and maximum and minimum canopy diameters using plots of 20 m x 20 m or 10 m x 10 m at each site. The browse production and browsing capacity were analysed using biomass estimation from canopy volume model and browsing capacity equation. The mean browse production at peak of the growing season varied from 516 to 14,914 kg ha-1 with a browsing capacity ranging from 8.27 ha and 0.21 ha BU-1 (browser unit), respectively. The mean woody vegetation density varied between 783 to 8,800 plants ha-1 while the mean evapotranspiration tree equivalent (ETTE), which is a measure of the status of a woody community in terms of potential moisture use, ranged from 2,421 to 58,951 with a high degree of bush encroachment with increasing ETTE. The woody plants that contributed more to browse production and bush encroachment were mainly the acacia species. While the increase in the woody vegetation results in higher browse biomass production, the high degree of bush encroachment, which lowers the production of the herbaceous layer affects the grazers. Thus, appropriate bush management needs to be implemented while taking into consideration the feed needs of the browsing and grazing animals
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