Herbage accumulation, nutritive value and beef cattle production on marandu palisadegrass pastures in integrated systems

Autor: Fagner Junior Gomes, Dalton Henrique Pereira, Carlos Guilherme Silveira Pedreira, Lynn E. Sollenberger, Flabiele S. da Silva, L. F. Domiciano, Bruno Carneiro e Pedreira
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Repositório Institucional da USP (Biblioteca Digital da Produção Intelectual)
Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
instacron:USP
ISSN: 1572-9680
0167-4366
DOI: 10.1007/s10457-020-00508-3
Popis: Diversification of monoculture grass pastures may provide opportunity for increased productivity, efficiency, and sustainability of forage-livestock systems. Our objective was to compare herbage accumulation (HA), nutritive value, and animal performance on a grass monoculture control and two alternative systems, all based on ‘Marandu’ palisadegrass [Brachiaria (syn. Urochloa) brizantha (A. Rich.) Stapf] in the Amazon Biome. Alternatives were a crop-livestock system based on soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and palisadegrass, and a eucalyptus [Eucalyptus urograndis (hybrid of E. grandis W. Hill ex Maiden and E. urophylla S. T. Blake) clone H13]-palisadegrass silvopasture. From July 2017 to May 2018 all experimental units were stocked continuously with beef cattle using a variable stocking rate to maintain a palisadegrass canopy height of 30 cm. The grass monoculture and silvopasture systems had similar HA (13,200 kg dry matter [DM] ha−1) and herbage accumulation rate (HAR; 40 kg DM ha−1 day−1), whereas crop-livestock resulted in greater HA (127%) and HAR (158%) than the other systems. Animal weight gain ha−1 for crop-livestock was 860 kg, 15% greater than for grass monoculture and silvopasture systems (average of 750 kg). Greatest palisadegrass HA and animal performance following 2 years of soybean production support the crop-livestock as an alternative for sustainable intensification. The similar HA and gain ha−1 in the seventh year of the silvopasture and grass monoculture indicates tree-pastures systems need wider arrangements to warrant long-term productivity. The maintenance of soil fertility, appropriate grazing management, and animal nutritional supplementation can greatly improve forage-based systems in the Amazon Biome.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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