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Article Dans Une Revue Science of the Total Environment Année : 2021

Potential of grazing management to improve beef cattle production and mitigate methane emissions in native grasslands of the Pampa biome

Résumé

We tested the hypothesis that improving sward structure through adjustments in forage allowance re-sults in greater forage intake and live weight (LW) gains by beef cattle and lower CH4emissions perunit LW gain and unit area in a native grassland ecosystem of the Pampa biome. The experiment wascarried out during 2012 and 2013 in southern Brazil.The experimental design was a randomized com-plete block with two replicates. Treatments consisted offive contrasting forage allowances of a nativegrassland managed under continuous stocking: 4, 8, 8–12, 12, and 16 kg of dry matter (DM) 100 kgLW−1day−1(or % LW). The 8–12% LW treatment had a variable forage allowance of 8% LW in springand 12% LW in summer, autumn, and winter. Forage allowance was controlled by changes in stockingrate (kg LW ha−1). Average daily gain (kg LW day−1) was high for forage allowances of 12 and16% LW but decreased at 8%, reaching the lowest value at 4% LW treatment (p<0.001).Liveweightgain ha−1year−1was the greatest at forage allowance of 8–12% LW (p< 0.001). Forage DM intakepeaked at a forage allowance of 12% LW (p= 0.005). Individual CH4emissions remained constantaround 150 g day−1for the two highest forage allowances and decreased to 118 and 107 g day−1under forage allowances of 8 and 4% LW, respectively (p= 0.002). Emissions per unit LW gain and unit area were driven by animal productivity changes and decreased with increasing forage allowance(p=0.001andp= 0.040, respectively). We propose that the combination of 8% LW forage allowanceduring spring and 12% LW during the rest of the year should be targeted to best balance animal produc-tion and environmental impact in the Pampa biome.
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Dates et versions

hal-03198736 , version 1 (15-04-2021)

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Ian Machado Cezimbra, Pedro Arthur de Albuquerque Nunes, William de Souza Filho, Marcelo Ritzel Tischler, Teresa Cristina Moraes Genro, et al.. Potential of grazing management to improve beef cattle production and mitigate methane emissions in native grasslands of the Pampa biome. Science of the Total Environment, 2021, 780, pp.146582. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146582⟩. ⟨hal-03198736⟩
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