Abstract
Datoga herding follows a cyclical pattern depending on the availability of grazing and water. This analysis focuses on two questions: (a) Is the herding strategy followed by individual households limited by the amount of labor available to that household? and (b) does the herding strategy followed by individual households influence the dynamics of cattle herds? The results show that the availability of labor on a household level does not influence either the herding strategies used by individual households, or the dynamics of cattle herds. This suggests that once minimum labor requirements are met, livestock productivity is insensitive to additional labor inputs.
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Sieff, D.F. Herding Strategies of the Datoga Pastoralists of Tanzania: Is Household Labor a Limiting Factor. Human Ecology 25, 519–544 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021829806765
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021829806765