Characterizing potential flexibility in grassland use. Application to the French Aubrac area

Martin, Guillaume; Hossard, Laure; Theau, J. P.; Thérond, Olivier; Josien, Étienne; Cruz, Pablo; Rellier, Jean-Pierre; Martin‐Clouaire, Roger; Duru, Michel

doi:10.1051/agro:2008063

Cited by 28 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The flexibility index was also found to be independent of the production-diversity trade-off and significantly influenced by grassland types, suggesting differences among grassland types in flexibility of timing of use. Moreover, the flexibility index was greater in pastures, which is consistent with grazing producing more flexible vegetation regarding the optimal time of use for forage quality (Martin et al 2009). …”

Section: Agronomic and Environmental Properties According To Managementsupporting

confidence: 62%

Assessing the Effects of Grassland Management on Forage Production and Environmental Quality to Identify Paths to Ecological Intensification in Mountain Grasslands

Loucougaray

Dobremez

Gos

et al. 2015

Environmental Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ecological intensification in grasslands can be regarded as a process for increasing forage production while maintaining high levels of ecosystem functions and biodiversity. In the mountain Vercors massif, where dairy cattle farming is the main component of agriculture, how to achieve forage autonomy at farm level while sustaining environmental quality for tourism and local dairy products has recently stimulated local debate. As specific management is one of the main drivers of ecosystem functioning, we assessed the response of forage production and environmental quality at grassland scale across a wide range of management practices. We aimed to determine which components of management can be harnessed to better match forage production and environmental quality. We sampled the vegetation of 51 grasslands stratified across 13 grassland types. We assessed each grassland for agronomic and environmental properties, measuring forage production, forage quality, and indices based on the abundance of particular plant species such as timing flexibility, apiarian potential, and aromatic plants. Our results revealed an expected trade-off between forage production and environmental quality, notably by stressing the contrasts between sown and permanent grasslands. However, strong within-type variability in both production and environmental quality as well as in flexibility of timing of use suggests possible ways to improve this trade-off at grassland and farm scales. As achieving forage autonomy relies on increasing both forage production and grassland resilience, our results highlight the critical role of the ratio between sown and permanent grasslands as a major path for ecological intensification in mountain grasslands.

show abstract

Section: Agronomic and Environmental Properties According To Managementsupporting

confidence: 62%

Assessing the Effects of Grassland Management on Forage Production and Environmental Quality to Identify Paths to Ecological Intensification in Mountain Grasslands

Loucougaray

Dobremez

Gos

et al. 2015

Environmental Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our results are in line with recent research. They complement studies estimating a theoretical potential allowed by diversity at the parcel or forage system scales (Martin et al 2009, Jacquot 2012) by extending them for summer pastures and by showing how diversity can be leveraged by shepherds in practical terms. Other criteria conferring resilience identified in our template (Table 3) were already known and taken into account in the field, for example:…”

Section: Contribution To Livestock Farming Systems Researchmentioning

confidence: 84%

Resilience as a framework for analyzing the adaptation of mountain summer pasture systems to climate change

Nettier¹,

Dobremez²,

Brunschwig³

2017

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. Social-ecological resilience is defined by Brian Walker and colleagues as "the capacity of a social-ecological system (SES) to absorb disturbances and reorganize while undergoing change so as to continue to retain essentially the same function, structure, feedbacks, and therefore identity." It is an increasingly widespread concept whose success depends, among other things, on the promise of its rapid transfer from science into practice and its operational character for the sustainable management of SESs. However, tangible examples of management methods based on resilience remain limited in the scientific literature. Here, we test the resilience management framework proposed by Brian Walker and David Salt by applying it to the case of mountain summer pastures in the French Alps, which are complex SESs in which human and ecological dimensions are closely linked and subject to substantial perturbations due to climate change. Three steps were implemented: (1) building a conceptual model based on expert knowledge of the functioning of summer pastures; (2) building, from the model, a template for summer pasture resilience analysis; and (3) testing the operational character of the model and the template for two pairs of contrasting cases. This heuristic tool enables understanding the ways in which farmers and herders manage the resilience of their system but does not aim to quantify resilience. The method developed, together with the resilience concept, provide insights into the functioning of summer pastures from both biophysical and management perspectives. The modeling process constitutes a learning process, which will support the implementation of adaptive management. We identified three critical points for making the method truly operational: basing modeling on an equal consideration of social and ecological dimensions, defining the boundaries of the modeled system based on the social dimension, and selecting a scale of analysis coherent with the type of development actions to be implemented.

show abstract

“…Therefore, they are limited regarding the representation of the biological source of adaptation of the system and the representation of individual variability. Extending SIGHMA by integrating a generic representation of decision-making processes (MartinClouaire and Rellier, 2009) would make it possible to study adaptive management (Darnhofer, 2009). It would open promising perspectives to more fully explore the regulating properties of livestock systems based on both the biological and management components.…”

Section: Simulation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An individual-based model simulating goat response variability and long-term herd performance

Puillet

Martin²,

Sauvant³

et al. 2010

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Finding ways of increasing the efficiency of production systems is a key issue of sustainability. System efficiency is based on long-term individual efficiency, which is highly variable and management driven. To study the effects of management on herd and individual efficiency, we developed the model simulation of goat herd management (SIGHMA). This dynamic model is individual-based and represents the interactions between technical operations (relative to replacement, reproduction and feeding) and individual biological processes (performance dynamics based on energy partitioning and production potential). It simulates outputs at both herd and goat levels over 20 years. A farmer's production project (i.e. a targeted milk production pattern) is represented by configuring the herd into female groups reflecting the organisation of kidding periods. Each group is managed by discrete events applying decision rules to simulate the carrying out of technical operations. The animal level is represented by a set of individual goat models. Each model simulates a goat's biological dynamics through its productive life. It integrates the variability of biological responses driven by genetic scaling parameters (milk production potential and mature body weight), by the regulations of energy partitioning among physiological functions and by responses to diet energy defined by the feeding strategy. A sensitivity analysis shows that herd efficiency was mainly affected by feeding management and to a lesser extent by the herd production potential. The same effects were observed on herd milk feed costs with an even lower difference between production potential and feeding management. SIGHMA was used in a virtual experiment to observe the effects of feeding strategies on herd and individual performances. We found that overfeeding led to a herd production increase and a feed cost decrease. However, this apparent increase in efficiency at the herd level (as feed cost decreased) was related to goats that had directed energy towards body reserves. Such a process is not efficient as far as feed conversion is concerned. The underfeeding strategy led to production decrease and to a slight feed cost decrease. This apparent increase in efficiency was related to goats that had mobilised their reserves to sustain production. Our results highlight the interest of using SIGHMA to study the underlying processes affecting herd performance and analyse the role of individual variability regarding herd response to management. It opens perspectives to further quantify the link between individual variability, herd performance and management and thus further our understanding of livestock farming systems.Keywords: simulation, herd, management, individual variability, dairy goat ImplicationsThe evaluation and design of sustainable livestock farming systems require predicting herd responses to management. This study describes a dairy goat herd model, representing dynamic interactions between management and individual biological processes. The model provides a...

show abstract

Characterizing potential flexibility in grassland use. Application to the French Aubrac area

Cited by 28 publications

References 25 publications

Assessing the Effects of Grassland Management on Forage Production and Environmental Quality to Identify Paths to Ecological Intensification in Mountain Grasslands

Assessing the Effects of Grassland Management on Forage Production and Environmental Quality to Identify Paths to Ecological Intensification in Mountain Grasslands

Resilience as a framework for analyzing the adaptation of mountain summer pasture systems to climate change

An individual-based model simulating goat response variability and long-term herd performance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About