Sustainability of Grazing Systems: Feed Base, Critical Grazing Pressure and Variability

Pearson, Craig J.; Zuo, Heping; Valentine, Ian; Unkovich, M.

doi:10.3763/ijas.2003.0110

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This can be meaningful for producers because the distribution of rainfall, which is often notoriously variable across Australia, can deviate from normal and complicate the use of measures such as deciles particularly where rainfall is low. An analogous situation applies to pastures (French 1991;Pearson et al 2003). Productivity is closely aligned with water use of up to 600 mm a year (French 1991;Bolger & Turner 1999).…”

Section: Water Productivitymentioning

confidence: 97%

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Innovation and productivity in dryland agriculture: a return-risk analysis for Australia

et al. 2010

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SUMMARYDespite a highly variable climate and fragile soils, dryland farming systems in Australia continue to be productive and viable. This review nominates the farming practices, and their development through investment in science and technology, that have helped sustain dryland farming systems in Australia. It sets the context for dryland agriculture in Australia and specifically examines the risks and returns from technological innovations over the past 30 years. It then examines possible sources of productivity gains in the next 20 years.Australian dryland farming systems have performed favourably compared to the agricultural sectors in most other countries over the past 30 years. Australian Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) has been a significant contributor to the realized agricultural productivity growth over this period. However, growth in the productivity of agriculture appears to have slowed down in the last 10 years: this is partly a result of extended dry conditions and declining growth in public investment in RD&E. It is reflected in slowing rates of technology adoption on broadacre farms and changes in investment confidence of farm owners.Future productivity gains will require continued strong investment in RD&E to meet current and emerging challenges. Future technologies and policies will help improve productivity by removing inefficiencies, increasing the efficiency of resource use and developing breakthrough innovations.As evidenced by Australia's success in productivity growth, meeting the global challenge to produce more food in the future will depend partly on investments in RD&E, risk management systems, farmer skill and human capital and policies that encourage efficiency gains.

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Section: Water Productivitymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…An analogous situation applies to pastures (French 1991; Pearson et al . 2003). Productivity is closely aligned with water use of up to 600 mm a year (French 1991; Bolger & Turner 1999).…”

Section: Australian Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation and productivity in dryland agriculture: a return-risk analysis for Australia

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Grazing practices are usually characterised by calculating average stocking rates and grazing pressures at farm or regional levels. These indicators may be considered as surrogate measures of biophysical sustainability (Pearson et al, 2003). However, because of the strong heterogeneity between and within farms and land units (Van Keulen, 2006), such quantitative criteria do not constitute a relevant pathway to examine and to understand the real utilisation of these areas (White et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Categorising farming practices to design sustainable land-use management in mountain areas

Girard¹,

Duru²,

Hazard³

et al. 2008

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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In European mountain areas, shrub encroachment resulting from farmland abandonment is most often managed by mechanical operations such as roller chopping or controlled burning, which have proved to be ineffective and unsustainable. Recent agroecological findings highlight the potential impact of grazing on long-term shrub dynamics. We thus explored the potential contribution of livestock farms to the management of shrub encroachment. We studied the diversity of livestock practices and strategies on the scale of a small mountain valley in France where a land-use management plan was initiated. We interviewed 33 livestock farmers with a comprehensive approach and analysed the data in partnership with local land-use managers. To categorise farming practices, we used an innovative constructivist method based on knowledge engineering techniques and tools such as repertory grids. Our results show that the diversity of land-use practices can be summed up by ten practices related to three management domains: (i) livestock management, that is, splitting herds into batches, leading animals to pasture and breeding choices; (ii) the feeding system, including indoor feeding during the year, the hierarchy between haymaking and grazing in spring and the system's forage autonomy; and (iii) farmland utilisation and maintenance, which comprises hillside use, spatial configuration of grazed areas, maintenance practices and technical choices to cut meadows. We also show that farmers combine these practices within six types of strategies: ensuring feeding security and simplifying labour (type A), maintaining farmland heritage (type B), taking advantage of hillsides (type C), focusing on animal care (type D), combining areas, periods and batches (type E), or selling on local markets (type F). This makes it possible to identify: (1) farmers' strategies that have the greatest impact on shrub encroachment; and (2) practices that may develop into more sustainable management of shrub encroachment. Our work is thus a first step in developing sustainable land-use management plans in rural areas threatened by shrub encroachment. In return, this deep understanding of farmers' strategies allowed us to address socially pertinent scientific issues related to the dynamics of grazed plant communities.agro-ecosystem management / livestock farming practices / grazing / modelling / shrub encroachment / typology

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Modelling crop productivity and variability for policy and impacts of climate change in eastern Canada

Pearson

Bucknell

Laughlin³

2008

Environmental Modelling & Software

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Sustainability of Grazing Systems: Feed Base, Critical Grazing Pressure and Variability

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

Innovation and productivity in dryland agriculture: a return-risk analysis for Australia

Innovation and productivity in dryland agriculture: a return-risk analysis for Australia

Categorising farming practices to design sustainable land-use management in mountain areas

Modelling crop productivity and variability for policy and impacts of climate change in eastern Canada

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