Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ruminant Livestock Production Systems And Imperatives For Sustainable Development, J. W. Smith

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

No abstract provided.

Biodiversity Conservation And Sustainable Livelihoods In Rangelands: Trends, Challenges And Opportunities, J. Waithaka

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Rangelands cover about 54% of the earth’s surface and are essential for agricultural and livestock production, environmental protection and the in-situ conservation of genetic resources. Despite providing services that support life on earth, rangelands have been neglected to a large extent when compared to other types of ecosystems. This paper provides an overview of the importance of rangelands in conserving biodiversity and supporting the livelihoods of millions of people globally. Rangelands have lost ecological integrity due to unsustainable anthropogenic land-use changes and impacts. It is estimated that over 80% of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are either not adequately protected or …

Feasibility Of Organic Certification Of Sheep And Goats Produced In Pastoral Systems In Northern Kenya, F. Von Steimker, H. T. Wario, B. Kaufmann

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

In pastoral systems of Kenya, sale of small ruminants is the main regular income source for most households. Although the meat of small ruminants produced in Marsabit county is preferred in the domestic market, no mechanisms are in place that allow for a respective price differentiation. Establishing value chains for labelled sheep and goat meat would be an option to allow pastoralists to profit from their high process and product quality. The aim of the current study is to assess the requirements and feasibility to establish a value chain for labelled products (e.g. origin labelled, organic certified) together with the …

Uses Of Native Plant Species Of A Communal Rangeland Within ‘Sierra De Huautla’ Protected Area, México, E. Cortés-Díaz, T. González-Bonilla, L. López-Aguilar, Pedro A. Martínez-Hernández, A. Hernández-Tapia

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Sustainability of communal rangelands has become a major concern at national and international levels because land use conflicts and associated social conflicts allows for over-utilization of selected species making a high pressure on them and given away their places to species with no use at all becoming lands degraded and unproductive. The objective of the study was to determine floristic composition and native plant uses by local peasants. The range surface is of 4262 ha, belongs to the communal land ‘El Limon’, in Tepalcingo, Morelos, Mexico, and it is within the Natural Reserve Area “Sierra de Huautla”. Native vegetation is …

Beta Macrophyta Diversity Analysis In The Temporary Pond Habitats Of Vettangudi Birds Sanctuary, Kannan Dorai Pandian, Mahesh Mony

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Three temporary ponds of Vettangudi birds sanctuary situate in very close proximity, located in Sivaganga District, Tamil Nadu state of India. However similar eco-climatic conditions prevailing at these pond habitat, those ponds experience the varying nature of biotic interactions. Since the habitat conditions and their land-use pattern have the major role on the vegetation diversity. Temporary ponds of Vettangudi Birds Sanctuary has the characteristic alternate drying and inundation at varying levels and this environmental condition in addition to the biotic influence over the habitat ecology and its vegetation diversity. Understanding this specific relationship is pivotal in the development of management …

Sustainable Intensification In Crop-Livestock Systems, P. Rovira, Paulo C. De F. Carvalho, J. Terra, F. Lattanzi, R. Pizzio, W. Ayala

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Extensive livestock production is the main animal source food system in the Pampas and Campos sub-regions in South America. Beef cattle and sheep convert forage biomass that humans cannot eat into nutrient-dense human-edible foods (meat and milk) and valuable co-products (wool). However, diverse global pressures are acting on Pampas systems including increasing demand for protein sources (food security), climate change, environmental footprint, and competition for land. The integration of small areas of pasture-crop rotations is an alternative for increasing efficiency and sustainable intensification of agroecosystems based on natural grasslands. Rotations led by improved pastures increase the carrying capacity and productivity …

Nutritional Sensitivity Per Morphological Component In Urochloa Hybrid Under Tropical Environments, Bernal-Flores Alvaro, E. A. Pizarro, Adrián R. Quero-Carrillo, Paulino Pérez-Rodríguez, Ramon Rodolfo Ruíz, Thiago Da Cruz Madeira

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Camello^® (GP 3025) is a tolerant to drought Urochloa hybrid grass showing good forage production, early flowering with high regrowth rates. The objective was to define nutrient concentration changes by morphological component and, their differences for two tropical contrasting environments. Nutrient concentrations differences (P≤0.05) were observed among morphological components over time. In environments (Aw₁) the morphological components showed higher average protein content in comparison to that from hostile conditions (Aw₀); lamina (12.2% vs 10.4%), pseudostem (9.5% vs 6.6%) and sheath (9.8% vs 6.8%). Hostile environments (Aw0) promoted increases for FAD (47.9%, 46.9%, pseudostem …

The Comparative Effects Of Short Duration, High Density And Conventional, Rotational Grazing On Different Soil, Vegetation And Animal Parameters In Dry And Mesic Grasslands Of South Africa, Jamie Paulse, Paul Malan, Nico Smit

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Short duration, high density grazing is a grazing management strategy that incorporates the rotation of large livestock herds, often at double or triple the normal prescribed stocking densities of the specific area. It is claimed that this type of grazing management can improve rangeland health by improving soil and vegetation condition, and subsequently influencing animal performance. Regardless of the scarcity of scientific evidence validating these claims, the change from conventional rotational grazing systems to short duration, high density grazing systems is on the increase in South Africa. This study aims to assess these claims, through the quantification of various rangeland …

Sustainable Management Of Rangelands: An Assessment Of Invasion Cover Trajectories And Their Contribution To Invasion Management In Marigat Sub-County, Kenya, Beatrice Adoyo, Albrecht Ehrensperger, Mikalitsa S. Mukhovi, Boniface Kiteme, Purity Mbaabu Rima, Sandra Eckert, Simon Choge, Urs Schaffner

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Invasive alien species have complex spatiotemporal patterns of spread beyond geographical and jurisdictional boundaries. This calls for a coordinated management approach that is spatially explicit, extends beyond individual plot levels, and incorporates land users’ perceptions and decisions. This study, therefore, aims at assessing spatiotemporal invasion trajectories of the invasive tree Prosopis juliflora in Baringo County, Kenya, and evaluating their possible relation to land users’ management decisions. Pre-classified land cover data over a seven-year time period (1988–2016) were reclassified based on the presence or absence of P. juliflora and integrated into ArcGIS to produce P. juliflora cover trajectories for analysis. The …

Enhancing Grassland Biodiversity And Its Consequences For Grassland Management And Utilisation, Johannes Isselstein

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Grasslands make an important contribution to the biodiversity of rural landscapes.

2. Biodiversity has the potential to support the production function of grassland. The conditions for this are largely unexplored.

3. The enhancement of biodiversity on agriculturally improved, species-poor grasslands is difficult to achieve due to seed limitation and high residual soil fertility.

4. Measures to overcome constraints are addition of propagules, depletion of soil nutrients, and the use of specific sward treatments.

5. Agri-environmental schemes will play an increasing role in achieving the biodiversity targets in the future, however, the efficiency of such schemes needs improvement.

Understanding Common Perceptions Of The Drylands, C. Bedelian, D. Pertaub, F. Ngarachu, C. Hesse, S. Krätli, J. Obando, C. Shisanya, J. Maraigua

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Drylands occupy over 40% of the earth’s surface and are home to more than 2 billion people. Drylands are key to the food and nutritional security of the planet and vital to the economies and livelihoods of dryland inhabitants. Yet, drylands are commonly perceived as unproductive, economically inefficient and marginal lands where small-scale farmers and pastoralists practice environmentally degrading activities. Driven by inadequate understanding and misconceptions of the drylands, policy-makers devise inappropriate policies and interventions. The BRECcIA project developed an online Drylands Perceptions Survey to understand the perceptions of researchers, practitioners and policy makers working in the drylands of Kenya, …

Relationships Between Biodiversity And Production In Grasslands At Local And Regional Scales, A. Hector, M. Loreau

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Experimental manipulations of plant species diversity in unfertilised prairies and meadows has revealed that increasing diversity often leads to increased productivity (range of observed relationships varies from flat to log-linearly positive); driven by a combination of facilitation, niche-partitioning and sampling/selection effects.

2. The longer-term effects of diversity on ecosystem stability are not as clear and in need of further work.

3. Recent applied work, and a new review of the grassland literature, both show the potential for biodiversity to increase productivity under realistic field conditions.

4. The longer-term feedback of grazers on biodiversity gradients is unknown, and …

Methane And Nitrous Oxide Emissions From Grazed Grasslands, Harry Clark, C. Pinares-Patiño, C. De Klein

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Emissions of methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) from grasslands make a substantial contribution to total agricultural emissions of these two gases.

2. At present practical mitigation options that relate to grazing ruminants and grazed pastures are limited.

3. Research into agricultural greenhouse gas emissions is of low priority in most developed countries.

4. Direct manipulation of the rumen ecosystem provides the best opportunity for large reductions in CH₄ in the long term.

5. Reducing the amount of nitrogen (N) excreted by grazing animals is a priority in N₂O research, …

Phenotypic Evaluation Of Energycane Varieties For Bioenergy, Wyatt Eason, D. M. Hollowell, Anna Hale, Jesse Ira Morrison, Brian Baldwin

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The need for renewable and carbon-neutral energy is growing as fossil fuel supplies decrease and concerns of climate change increase. C₄ grasses are among the most efficient carbon accumulators. Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is a renewable bioenergy crop with low inputs and high yields, but it is limited to tropical and sub-tropical climates. A close relative, Saccharum spontaneum, readily hybridizes with S. officinarum. S. spontaneum lends cold tolerance and higher yields to the hybrid progeny, called energycane. The Sugarcane Breeding Unit (USDA, Houma, Louisiana, USA) selected twenty-six genotypes for testing at Mississippi State University to determine production …

Grazing Land Contributions To Carbon Sequestration, Ronald F. Follett, G. E. Schuman

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Grazing management can be used to increase soil organic carbon sequestration.

2. Grazing land soils contain large amounts of carbon with depth, and can store it for centuries.

3. Policies to encourage terrestrial carbon sequestration through conservation and good management of grazing lands are critical for many countries and the world.

Global Atmospheric Change And Its Effect On Managed Grassland Systems, Andreas Lüscher, J. Fuhrer, P. C. D. Newton

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and a trend to warmer mean temperatures are the most reliable aspects of global atmospheric change. Projections of the extent of climate change and the frequency of extreme weather conditions remain uncertain.

2. Research has considerably reduced the uncertainty about effects of global atmospheric change on physiology of plants, productivity and species composition of plant communities.

3. Other factors (e.g. nutrient availability, soil type) and long-term adaptation of the ecosystem (e.g. nutrient cycling and sequestration) influence the response of plant communities to global atmospheric change. Generalisation is not possible with respect to the …

Grassland Productivity And Water Quality: A 21St Century Issue, David M. Nash, P. M. Haygarth

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Irrigation and other changes to the hydrological cycle can increase soil and water salinity.

2. Primary salinisation is a natural process that affects much of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia. Secondary salinisation is caused by human activities such as irrigation and land clearing that mobilise salt stored in the soil.

3. The critical water contaminants exported from grasslands are nitrogen, phosphorus, potential pathogens and sediment.

4. The mechanisms responsible for diffuse pollution from grasslands and mitigation strategies are most effectively investigated using a ‘source-mobilisation-transport’ framework.

5. There is a lack of coherent interaction across discipline …

Water Resources, Agriculture And Pasture: Implications Of Growing Demand And Increasing Scarcity, M. W. Rosegrant, R. A. Valmonte-Santos, S. A. Cline, C. Ringler, W. Li

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Water availability for irrigation is threatened in many regions by rapidly increasing demand for nonagricultural water uses in industry, households, and the environment. The scarcity of irrigation water will not only impact crop production, but also meat production, as much of the pasture used to feed livestock is irrigated.

2. Grassland is caught between two countervailing forces: a requirement for increasing meat demand that boosts the need for additional pasture to support livestock production, and rapidly increasing water scarcity that makes pasture irrigation uneconomical.

3. The most effective means of dealing with water scarcity is likely to …

Soil Quality Assessment And Management, M. G. Kibblewhite

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Soil quality is related to the capacity of soil to deliver ecosystem services on a sustainable basis.

2. Effective management of soil within grasslands can deliver many benefits to mankind but poor management may cause loss of soil quality from erosion, loss of organic matter, physical deterioration etc.

3. Services are delivered from soil by biological processes. Soil quality depends on the form and condition of the soil habitat. Fixed factors (e.g. texture) are useful for assigning soil to types. Variable factors (e.g. organic carbon) can then be used to assess quality within soil types, by reference …

Soil Microbial Community: Understanding The Belowground Network For Sustainable Grassland Management, Y. G. Zhu, W. D. Kong, B. D. Chen, Z. B. Nan, P. Christie

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. In addition to the use of conventional methodologies in soil microbial research, molecular techniques are now being applied to gain insights into the soil microbial community;

2. Plant diversity can exert impacts on soil microbial diversity (through root activities and plant litter etc.), but may in itself be significantly altered by soil properties;

3. Soil microbial diversity largely determines the stability of soil ecosystems under biotic and abiotic perturbations.

4. Management of soil microbial diversity can only be achieved through better understanding their structures and functions.

The Potential Of Grassland And Associated Forages To Produce Fibre, Biomass, Energy Or Other Feedstocks For Non-Food And Other Sectors: New Uses For A Global Resource, M. F. Askew

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. In developed countries increased areas of land will become available for non-food production. Recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy will further intensify this trend in Europe.

2. There is potential for grassland and associated species to contribute to large tonnage markets of energy and bulk fibres, to the supply of fermentation products and to speciality markets, but processes and approaches to the market are not as yet developed.

3. There is potential for the establishment of Graminaceous species - specifically for nonfood use. For European conditions particular attention is being given to Miscanthus sinensis (Miscanthus), Arundo …

Adoption Of Tropical Legume Technology Around The World: Analysis Of Success, H. M. Shelton, S. Franzel, M. Peters

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Examples of successful adoption of forage legumes are reported from all continents, where they delivered profitability and often provided multipurpose benefits to farmers.

2. Factors vital to successful adoption were: meeting the needs of farmers; building relevant partnerships; understanding the socio-economic context and skills of farmers; participatory involvement with rural communities; and long-term involvement of champions.

3. Organisation of seed supply, achieving scale-up and forming partnerships to implement adoption are key features.

4. Legumes remain an important but under-exploited resource for tropical farming systems. The alternative to legumes will be greater and more costly use of N-fertilisers …

Grasses As Biofactories: Scoping Out The Opportunities, Nick Roberts, K. Richardson, G. Bryan, C. Voisey, W. Mcnabb, T. Conner, M. Christey, R. Johnson

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Plant biopharming is set to dominate commercial recombinant protein expression for specific proteins.

2. The choice of plant species depends on a multitude of factors and is determined on a caseby- case basis.

3. As a leaf based expression system grasses would have to compete predominantly with tobacco and alfalfa.

4. The grass-endophyte symbiosis offers a number of unique possibilities for biopharming.

Evolution Of Integrated Crop-Livestock Production Systems, Martin H. Entz, William D. Bellotti, J. M. Powell, S. V. Angadi, W. Chen, K. H. Ominski, B. Boelt

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Many factors contribute to changes in the crop-livestock systems, but no logical end-point in the evolution process exists.

2. While benefits of integrated crop-livestock systems over specialised crop and livestock systems are well documented, there has been a move to specialised crop and livestock production.

3. Sustainability issues (manure nutrient concentration, soil quality maintenance, salinity, herbicide resistance, economic instability) have created a renewed interest in integrated crop-livestock systems.

4. Farmer adaptability is as an important link in the evolution between ‘states of integration’.

Overcoming Seasonality Of Production: Opportunities Offered By Forage Conservation Technologies, P. O'Kiely, A. G. Kaiser

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Seasonality of forage supply is a key contributor to the seasonality of meat and milk production.

2. Conserving forages as silage or hay can help reduce the seasonality of feed supply.

3. Forage conservation technologies make this contribution mainly through increases in the yield or quality of suitable crops, through an improved efficiency of the conservation process or by allowing a reduction in costs.

4. Future research needs differ considerably among regions of the world.

Grasslands For Production And The Environment, David R. Kemp, David L. Michalk

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. To manage grasslands for production and enhanced environmental values requires a redefinition of the frameworks within which management decisions are made, and a tailoring of practices to suit the ways that farmers operate.

2. Improving the perenniality and permanence of grasslands usually leads to better environmental and production outcomes.

3. There is a case for a more conservative approach to utilising grasslands in order to sustain the functioning of local ecosystems and to improve water quality, nutrient and energy cycling and biodiversity.

4. A landscape rather than paddock focus is more appropriate for meeting current grassland management …

Strategies To Mitigate Seasonality Of Production In Grassland-Based Systems, Claudio Porqueddu, S. Maltoni, John G. Mcivor

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Fertilisation use and manipulation can cost-effectively alter species composition, increase seasonal herbage production and improve herbage quality.

2. Choice of suitable grassland species, varieties and mixtures offers opportunity to mitigate limitations of seasonal grassland production.

3. Special purpose fodder crops, cereals, shrubs and trees offer alternative or supplementary feed sources.

4. Manipulation of stocking rates, grazing systems, transhumance and pasture management at various times of the season are significant advantageous options.

5. Integration of different strategies is essential to mitigate seasonality in systems of animal production that must be inherently more sustainable over a longer time frame.

Foraging Behaviour And Herbage Intake In The Favourable Tropics/Subtropics, S. C. Da Silva, Paulo C. De F. Carvalho

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. Herbage intake by animals grazing tropical/sub-tropical pastures is directly related to bite mass, as it is for those grazing temperate pastures.

2. Where these swards have low proportions of stem and dead material (controlled swards), herbage intake follows a similar pattern to that of temperate pasture species, but leaf characteristics, such as lamina length play an important role and influence the short-term rate of intake.

3. Sward structural characteristics and behavioural factors are relatively more important than nutritional factors in terms of herbage intake regulation. The feeding value of the herbage produced is potentially adequate to sustain …

Interactions Between Foraging Behaviour Of Herbivores And Grassland Resources In The Eastern Eurasian Steppes, Deli Wang, Guodong Han, Yuguang Bai

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. In rangeland areas such as the eastern Eurasian steppes (Mongolia and China), foraging behaviour is influenced by plant or vegetation properties with high heterogeneity.

2. Until recently foraging theory has not accounted for the foraging process or ingestive behaviour. Existing theories on foraging behaviour need to evolve and begin to coalesce, and combine with observations or manipulative experiments.

3. Plant and patch properties such as diversity and height influence animal foraging behaviour (related to foraging process or diet selection) in heterogeneous steppes.

4. Stocking rate is the most important management factor for grazing or vegetation management, and …

Grass And Forage Plant Improvement In The Tropics And Sub-Tropics, Liana Jank, Cacilda B. Do Valle, Rosangela M. S. Resende

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Key points

1. The majority of tropical and subtropical forage grass genera and/or species have not yet been collected, or need further collection to be representative of their natural distribution.

2. New biotechnological techniques will only result in the release of superior forage cultivars if supported by strong breeding programs.

3. More funding and investment in the formation of strong public research teams in forage conservation and improvement are needed to guarantee the sustainability of tropical and subtropical pasture-based livestock systems in the future.

4. The creation of a permanent international working group on tropical and subtropical forages is essential …