Controlling herbage allowance and selection of cow genotype improve cow-calf productivity in Campos grasslands

Carmo, M. Do; Sollenberger, Lynn E.; Carriquiry, M.; Soca, P.

doi:10.15232/pas.2016-01600

Cited by 29 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Introduction Measurement of herbage mass is crucial for management of stocking rate based on herbage allowance (Do Carmo et al 2018) and as a state variable of grazing system related to ecosystem services (Ruggia et al 2015). Campos grassland cover Uruguay, south Brazil and northeast of Argentina, and to extend the measurement of herbage mass for large paddocks and whole farms, methods have to be easy to apply for farmers and managers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The management of herbage allowance improves beef cattle productivity in Campos grazing systems Introduction Herbage allowance (HA, kg DM/kg BW) has proved to be an effective tool for management to increase beef cattle productivity in Campos grassland (Soares et al 2005, Mezzalira et al 2012, Claramunt et al 2016, Do Carmo et al 2018. However validation at commercial systems has to be evaluated, and a project was carried out in two commercial farms to validate coefficients of HA proposed by the research results.…”

Section: Session 6: Feed Conversion Efficiency Towards Productivity Amentioning

confidence: 99%

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Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores

Giger-Reverdin¹,

Sauvant²

2018

Advances in Animal Biosciences

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Session 6: Feed Conversion Efficiency Towards Productivity Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores

Giger-Reverdin¹,

Sauvant²

2018

Advances in Animal Biosciences

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“…We proposed to graze this area with steers only during springautumn and introduce pregnant beef cows during winter, in order to remove the mature dry forage accumulated during the spring-autumn period. Forage allowance during winter was monitored monthly and kept at 3-4 kg DM/kg LW (Do Carmo et al 2018), which is a low FA for beef cows. High stocking pressure is needed to adjust the coefficient following a growing season when FA was high, e.g.…”

Section: Producer Demonstration Sites and Methodsological Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous authors have found that criteria for variation of stocking rates on farms normally are not based on experimental information, which may reduce the opportunity to improve animal production (Paparamborda 2017). Forage allowance (FA) experiments demonstrated the benefits of its control, improving animal production per ha in beef cow-calf systems by increasing individual animal production at lower or equal stocking rates (Claramunt et al 2017;Do Carmo et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and Ph.D. theses (Grazing Ecology Research Group at UFRGS, Brazil) to develop 'rules of thumb' for FA, which would provide an optimal combination of ADG and stocking rate (Table 1). For beef cows, we developed FA standards based on research developed from 2007 (Do Carmo et al 2016;2018) plus previous information that recommended target forage height and BCS of cows during the lactation-gestation cycle (Soca et al 2007; see Table 1). For fattening animals we were unable to locate grazing experiments for Campos grassland, and for this reason standards presented are a mixture of beef cow values and empirical experience collected in this project (Table 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Demonstrating control of forage allowance for beef cattle grazing Campos grassland in Uruguay to improve system productivity

Carmo

Cardozo

Jaurena

et al. 2019

Trop. grassl.-Forrajes trop.

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While low-cost technology can be applied within beef cattle systems to improve economic output and decrease economic risk, methodologies to increase adoption by farmers deserve attention. Here we report 4 case studies where low-cost, high-impact technology was applied on commercial farms in an endeavor to demonstrate increased physical output in what we describe as 'Producer Demonstration Sites'. Forage allowance (FA) affects forage growth, forage intake by animals and energy partitioning to maintenance or production. We decided to demonstrate the benefits to production from controlling forage allowance at specific recommended levels. While we focused on FA, other management tools, e.g. suckling restriction and energy supplementation of cows prior to breeding, were tested in different contexts and time periods to improve the critical responses mentioned. While increases in production from 3 of the farms were demonstrated, only 2 of the farmers showed interest in implementing the strategies on their farms subsequently. We conclude that control of forage allowance improved energy intake. For this approach to be successful and increase adoption, it is important to involve the farmers in discussions regarding the proposed changes from the outset as well as the monitoring of progress during the demonstration.

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Number of samples for accurate visual estimation of mean herbage mass in Campos grasslands

et al. 2020

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The number of samples is a major issue when estimating the mean herbage mass of grazed paddocks. The aim of this study was to assess the number of samples required for accurate visual estimation of mean herbage mass in relation to the herbage mass heterogeneity and size of paddocks. Data were collected across scales of space and time (273 sampling events) from paddocks on Campos grasslands in Uruguay, using the visual estimation technique. The mean herbage mass of the paddocks ranged from 270 to 6350 kg of dry matter (DM) per hectare with coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.13 to 1.26. Twenty‐four events representing four levels of herbage mass heterogeneity (CV = 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0) × three levels of paddock size (small, 5–13 ha; medium, 41–67 ha; large, 100–140 ha) were chosen (two replicates per group), and analyzed for the probability that the estimation error exceeded 10% of the mean (10% error probability) using the bootstrap technique. The number of samples required for controlling the 10% error probability below 0.1 increased gradually from 50 to 150 per paddock as the CV increased from 0.3 to 0.7, then sharply to 350 until the CV increased to 1.0, with no effect of paddock size. Taking account of the distribution of CV (< 0.7 in nearly 80% of the events), we propose a general recommendation to take a minimum of 150 samples per paddock for accurate estimation of mean herbage mass in Campos grasslands irrespective of the size of paddocks.

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Controlling herbage allowance and selection of cow genotype improve cow-calf productivity in Campos grasslands

Cited by 29 publications

References 12 publications

Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores

Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores

Demonstrating control of forage allowance for beef cattle grazing Campos grassland in Uruguay to improve system productivity

Number of samples for accurate visual estimation of mean herbage mass in Campos grasslands

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