Production and nutritive value of pastures in integrated livestock production systems: shading and management effects

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the production characteristics of pastures in integrated livestock production systems. For that, an experiment was carried out in São Carlos, SP, Brazil, from 2013 to 2015. Forage development, production and nutritive value were evaluated in five beef cattle production systems: extensive continuous stocking (Urochloa decumbens) = EXT; intensive = INT; crop-livestock = iCL; livestock-forest = iLF and crop-livestock-forest = iCLF. Rotational stocking pastures in INT, iCL, iLF and iCLF systems were established with Urochloa brizantha cv. BRS Piatã. In iCL and iCLF, pastures were renovated by resowing the grass simultaneously with corn. In iLF and iCLF, eucalyptus (Eucalyptus urograndis clone GG100) was planted in Apr 2011 in single rows with 15 × 2 m spacing. In the 2013/2014 crop season, INT, iCL, and iCLF pastures were more productive than in iLF and EXT. Shading increase in the 2014/2015 season reduced pasture production in iLF and iCLF, compared with INT and iCL, but increased crude protein content and digestibility. In the shaded systems, pasture production was affected by proximity to trees, mainly due to reductions in solar radiation transmission. The principal component analyses showed that forage accumulation and leaf area index were associated with the position in the middle of the inter-row, and nutritive value was associated with the position at 1.5 m from the trees. In iCLF, solar radiation transmission greater than 60 % maintained forage accumulation similar to iCL, while in iLF, it reduced forage accumulation, evidencing that pasture renovation minimized shading effects in these systems.

Bean–soybean succession under full sun and in agroforestry systems: Impacts on radiation use efficiency, growth and yield

“…The results found in this study are similar to those observed by Pezzopane et al. (2020), who performed a multivariate PCA approach of the growth characteristics, nutritional value and forage yield of Urochloa brizantha at different positions in the Eucalyptus urograndis understory, and found that increasing shading (positions closer to the tree rows) promoted a reduction in forage production. Similarly, Pezzopane et al.…”

Drought is a stronger driver of plant morphology and nutritional composition than warming in two common pasture species

“…Multivariate analysis is not widely applied in agricultural research, particularly in feed evaluation, however, our findings suggest that this oversight may underestimate the consequences of climate change for forage quality. Statistical ordination techniques like PCA can usefully reduce the complexity of large forage data sets, aiding interpretation (Gallo et al, 2013; Pezzopane et al, 2020) while also avoiding the issue of multiple comparisons posed by numerous univariate analyses and non-independence of the chemical constituents in individual plants. In this study, for tall fescue, the majority of variability under climate change treatments was first associated (PCA1) with nutritional parameters and secondarily (PCA2) associated with morphological parameters.…”

Recent advances in maize production in integrated systems: A review

“…have been greatly used due to the rapid growth after maize harvesting, increasing forage and animal production, and nutrient cycling. This cultivar has more response when rainfall conditions are favorable (rainy season), while B. ruziziensis and B. decumbens are most used in the offseason (less favorable water conditions) (Oliveira et al, 2019;Pezzopane et al, 2020). Moreover, common practice in grass-maize intercropping is the herbicide application (atrazine and nicosulfuron) in sub-doses for weed control and delay forage growth minimizing the competition with maize and reducing yield losses (Santos et al, 2015).…”

“…The spatial arrangement of trees in the agroforestry system mainly influences the understory microclimate conditions (Magalhães et al, 2020), reducing the temperature (Domiciano et al, 2018), wind speed (Karvatte Jr et al, 2016), and mainly photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (Gomes et al, 2019;Nascimento et al, 2019). Thus, in agroforestry systems, especially in situations where there is an increase in shade levels near to the trees, a reduction in forage production has been reported (Gomes et al, 2019;Nascimento et al, 2019;Pezzopane et al, 2019;Pezzopane et al, 2020) and crop yield (Moreira et al, 2018;Pardon et al, 2018;Nardini et al, 2019). These factors are magnified when associated with water competition (Jose et al, 2004).…”