Estimating grass fuel loads with a disc pasture meter in the Kruger National Park

Abstract

Abstract The major portion of the fuel load in the savanna areas comprises surface fuels in the form of the standing grass sward. The disc pasture meter was successfully calibrated for estimating grass fuel loads in the main landscapes of the Kruger National Park. The calibration comprised estimating the mean disc height of a 4 m2 quadrat and harvesting the grass as close to ground level as possible. Using a large quadrat gave highly satisfactory results indicating that this procedure should be considered as a standard method of calibration, particularly in grass swards having a low basal cover.