Technology and ecology in the Karoo: a century of windmills, wire and changing farming practice

Windmills and wire fencing entered the farming practices of the north-easte rn Karoo in the final decades of the nineteenth century. A new grazing syst em came into being comprising artificial water sources and camps in which s heep and other livestock ranged freely. By the late 1920s this had displace d the old shepherding-plus-kraaling arrangements. At the time, the coming o f the new methods was predicted to raise stocking rates, improve veld cover and lessen soil erosion. This paper asks what the ecological consequences have been when viewed historically. information is drawn from available sou rces, and the replies are summarised of current farmers and other land reso urce managers in the Sneeuberg in response to questions about the impact of the camp system. Recent debates about alternative models of rangeland ecol ogy are surveyed as an essential preliminary to the construction of histori cal hypotheses. Finally, more far-reaching and demanding questions on envir onmental change in the Karoo are posed for future research work.