Crop-livestock systems are regaining their importance as an alternative to unsustainable intensive farming systems. Loss of biodiversity, nutrient pollution and habitat fragmentation are a few of many concerns recently reported with modern agriculture. Integrating crops and pastures in no-till systems can result in better environmental services, since conservation agriculture is improved by system diversity, paths of nutrient flux, and other processes common in nature. The presence of large herbivores can positively modify nutrient pathways and soil aggregation, increasing soil quality. Despite the low diversity involved, the integration of crops and pastures enhances nature's biomimicry and allows attainment of a higher system organization level. This paper illustrates these benefits focusing on the use of grazing animals integrated with crops under no-tillage systems characteristic of southern Brazil.
-Integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS) are designed to exploit synergisms and emergent properties resulting from interactions between different soil-plant-animal-atmosphere compartments that integrate themselves at different spatial-temporal scales. In this review, a panorama of the evolution of studies based on ICLS is presented. Specific keywords were used as search terms to construct a database of 450 articles from 93 national and international journals published up to and including 2013. These articles were classified according to the region of origin within Brazil (subtropical or tropical) and categorized regarding the studied components: soil, plant, animal and 'others'. Within these components, groups of variables that could characterize the different thematic lines were listed. The number of publications worldwide has been increasing, and Brazil is one of the main suppliers of scientific work within this area. Although the number of scientific studies seeking better understanding of ICLS may have increased in Brazil, further studies with a systematic view and with larger temporal and spatial scales are still required to help identify interactions between diverse biotic and abiotic factors that define new properties that emerge from these systems.Key words: Conservation agriculture. Sustainability. Scientific production. Agricultural technology. Systematic approach.RESUMO -Os sistemas integrados de produção agrícola e pecuária são caracterizados como sistemas planejados para explorar sinergismos e propriedades emergentes, resultado de interações entre os diferentes compartimentos solo-plantaanimal-atmosfera, que se integram em diferentes escalas espaço-temporais. Nesta revisão é apresentado um panorama da evolução das pesquisas embasadas em uma produção integrada entre os diferentes compartimentos. Considerou-se o período até 2013 e palavras-chave como fator de busca, sendo construída uma base de dados, partindo de um universo de 450 artigos em 93 periódicos nacionais e internacionais. Estes artigos foram classificados de acordo com a região de origem do Brasil: subtropical ou tropical; e categorizados quanto aos componentes: solo, planta, animal e outros. Dentro desses componentes foram elencados grupos de variáveis que caracterizassem diferentes linhas temáticas. As publicações no mundo têm aumentado e o Brasil está entre os principais provedores de trabalhos científicos nessa área. Embora seja crescente o número de trabalhos científicos no Brasil, que buscam melhor compreensão dos sistemas integrados de produção agrícola e pecuária, as pesquisas com visão sistêmica e de maior escala temporal e espacial ainda necessitam de mais estudos, para que possam detectar interações entre os diversos fatores bióticos e abióticos e novas propriedades que emergem destes sistemas.Palavras-chave: Agricultura conservacionista. Sustentabilidade. Produção científica. Tecnologia agropecuária. Enfoque sistêmico.
The study of factors influencing animal intake can provide a better understanding of the dynamics of the pasture ecosystem and serve as a basis for managing livestock in a more efficient way. We measured different sward surface heights of tall fescue in the process of short-term intake rate of sheep. There was a significant effect of sward surface height on herbage mass ( P < 0.001), leaf lamina mass ( P < 0.001), other species mass ( P = 0.02), bite mass ( P = 0.01) and short-term intake rate ( P = 0.03) of sheep. There was a quadratic fit between time per bite and bite mass ( P = 0.006). Multivariate analysis showed that the short-term intake rate and bite mass were positively correlated (r = 0.97), bite rate and total jaw movement rate were positively correlated but both were negatively correlated with time per bite. The sward surface height of tall fescue corresponding to the maximum short-term herbage intake rate was 22.3 cm. The underlying processes were driven by the bite mass, which was influenced by the leaf lamina bulk density and its consequences upon time per bite. This sward surface height can be adopted as a pre-grazing target for rotational stocking systems to optimize sheep nutrition on pastures.
Effective integrated weed management in agricultural landscapes depends on the ability to identify and manage processes that drive weed dynamics. The current study reports the effects of grazing management and crop rotation strategies on the seedbank and emerged weed flora in an integrated crop-livestock system (ICLS) experiment during a 12-year period under no-tillage in sub-tropical southern Brazil. During winter, Italian ryegrass cover crops were grazed by sheep: grazing management treatments included two stocking methods (continuous and rotational) and two forage allowances (10 and 20 kg of herbage dry matter available per 100 kg animal live weight). During summer, the crop rotation treatments involved either soybean-maize or soybean-soybean in succession with winter-grazed cover crops. The treatments were part of a factorial randomized complete block design. Treatment effects were evaluated on the weed seedbank and emerged weed flora populations during winter-grazed cover crop and summer crop growth as well as during the harvest phase. The current results demonstrate that crop rotation and grazing management exhibited interactive effects on the determination of weed outcomes in an ICLS. However, overall, compared with moderate forage allowance, high forage allowance during the winter-grazed cover crop caused lower emerged weed flora in subsequent crops (20% reduction during crop growth and 90% reduction at crop harvest) and 48% reduction in seedbank size. High forage allowance promoted more residue from winter-grazed cover crop biomass, which remained during the summer crop phases and probably resulted in a physical barrier to weed emergence.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.