A New Strategy for Utilizing Rice Forage Production Using a No-Tillage System to Enhance the Self-Sufficient Feed Ratio of Small Scale Dairy Farming in Japan

Abstract

Rice forage systems can increase the land use efficiency in paddy fields, improve the self-sufficient feed ratio, and provide environmental benefits for agro-ecosystems. This system often decreased economic benefits compared with those through imported commercial forage feed, particularly in Japan. We observed the productivities of winter forage after rice harvest between conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) in a field experiment. An on-farm evaluation was performed to determine the self-sufficient ratio of feed and forage production costs based on farm evaluation of the dairy farmer and the rice grower, who adopted a rice forage system. The field experiment detected no significant difference in forage production and quality between CT and NT after rice harvest. However, the production cost was dramatically decreased by 28.1% in NT compared with CT. The self-sufficient ratio was 5.4% higher when dairy farmers adopted the rice forage system compared with those using the current management system. Therefore, this study demonstrated the positive benefits for dairy farmers and rice growers in Japan when adopting a rice forage system with NT, which could improve the self-sufficient feed ratio and reduce production costs. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2014, 6 4976

Response of weeds and rice yield to Italian ryegrass as a cover crop and planting density in organic farming

“…The biomass of Italian ryegrass in a flooded paddy field obtained in this study is similar to that obtained in previous studies (Kaker et al., 2019; Zahra et al., 2014); however, the dry matter was higher in 2020 than in 2019 because of the earlier sowing time (Table 1). The cumulative growing degree days for Italian ryegrass growth periods were 862 in 2018–2019 and 1,182 in 2019–2020.…”