Does herbicide weed control increase livestock production on non-equilibrium rangeland?

Fuhlendorf, Samuel D.; Engle, David M.; O’Meilia, Christopher M.; Weir, J.R.; Cummings, D. Chad

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2009.02.015

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The year 2010, which was the exception in showing a sward-type effect on the calves (Figure 3), might be due to a higher milk yield of the cows on the div-swards compared to the gd-swards. Our findings, therefore, support the study of Fuhlendorf et al (2009), who found no advantage in using herbicides to enhance grazing cattle daily live weight gains. The lower animal-ADG of cows in 2007 may be associated with 39% more precipitation in that year, relative to the long-term average, as Schütz et al (2010), also found that excessive rain reduced the dry matter intake of cows.…”

Section: Growth Of Livestocksupporting

confidence: 91%

“…As part of normal agricultural practice, many farmers use herbicides to remove species regarded as weeds, or of low value, in order to extend the life of a sown sward and improve production of grasses and overall forage quality (Fuhlendorf et al, 2009;Petersen et al, 2013). However, Petersen et al (2013) did not detect any consistent effect of herbicide application on the herbage yield in an experiment on cut grassland that had vegetation similar to the swards of the present study.…”

Section: Effects Of Sward Type and Phytodiversity On Productivitycontrasting

confidence: 71%

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Diverse Swards and Mixed-Grazing of Cattle and Sheep for Improved Productivity

Jerrentrup¹,

Komainda²,

Seither³

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Increasing sward phytodiversity has been suggested as having potential to increase primary production of grasslands, but whether any such gains are converted into secondary production, through improved performance of grazing livestock, remains uncertain. Animal production by cattle and sheep can also be enhanced by mixed-grazing. To our knowledge, this effect has never been studied in relation to differences in sward phytodiversity. Therefore, a rotational grazing experiment was conducted over 5 years (2007-2011) on permanent grassland in Germany using sheep and cattle in mono-(single-species) or mixed-grazing of swards differing in plant species richness. Herbicides against dicotyledonous plant species were used to create different sward types: species-poor, grass-dominated swards in contrast to untreated "diverse" control swards. We found no differences in herbage production between the sward types. However, compared to the grass-dominated sward, the diverse sward showed greater concentrations of crude protein and lower contents of acid detergent fiber in the herbage dry-matter. Lamb live weight gains were slightly greater on the diverse-swards (P < 0.05), but calf performance was unaffected by sward type. Mixed-grazing increased daily average live weight gains of suckler cows (g cow −1 d −1) (P < 0.05) as well as area-related daily live weight gains (kg ha −1 d −1) and total live weight gains (kg ha −1) during the complete grazing season (P < 0.001). This indicates advantages of combining livestock species, attributed to complementary pasture use. We suggest that mixed-grazing of cattle and sheep on phytodiverse swards is an effective and sustainable means to enhance ecological and agronomic traits such as livestock production and plant species conservation. Lamb production especially showed benefits under mixed-grazing, with a 17% increase in live weight gain. Compared to the grass-dominated sward, diverse swards resulted in an average 12% increase of live weight gains (across grazing systems and livestock species).

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Section: Growth Of Livestocksupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Effects Of Sward Type and Phytodiversity On Productivitycontrasting

confidence: 71%

Diverse Swards and Mixed-Grazing of Cattle and Sheep for Improved Productivity

Jerrentrup¹,

Komainda²,

Seither³

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…One major problem appears to be our lack of understanding of weed pressure thresholds that actually reduce the productivity of desired forage species. As Fuhlendorf et al (2009) showed, herbicide applications had little impact on cattle or forage production in rangeland, mainly because annual weather variability overwhelmed those effects. A problem with the use of broadleaf herbicides is that they reduce valuable legumes, as well as undesirable species.…”

Section: Soil Fertility and Pest Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience in Forage and Grazinglands

et al. 2018

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The current reality of population growth, resource scarcity, and climate change requires resilient agroecosystems to sustain food production and protect the environment. This manuscript reflects a combined effort of speakers at the 2017 C6 Forage and Grazinglands Division Symposium, which was titled “Resiliency in Forage and Grazinglands.” The symposium brought together speakers representing a diverse cross‐section of forage systems across the United States. Each speaker discussed resilience‐related topics from their specific region, including: the importance of diversity and use of complementary forages in grazing systems, how grazing and defoliation affect resilience, the importance of soil fertility and pest management, and development of decision aids to evaluate resilience in grazinglands. Several themes emerged that we propose would help improve the resilience of forage and grazingland systems: (i) identifying moderately diverse, site‐specific mixtures (grasses–legumes) for use in specific regions of the United States, (ii) greater use of complementary forage species such as C3 and C4 grasses to lengthen the grazing season and provide a buffer against weather variation, (iii) adoption of moderate defoliation intensities to help stabilize forage production and species composition, (iv) more attention to maintaining and improving soil fertility to improve the productivity of desirable forage species and reduce weed pressure, and (v) increase adoption of assessment tools to evaluate the relative “health” and potential resilience of forage‐livestock systems. An integrative management approach that combines many of these elements would help improve the resilience of forage and grazinglands to sustain high productivity under increasingly erratic and extreme weather.

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“…First, in the majority of the study gardens, gardeners let weeds grow, often out of curiosity, to discover their potential impact on other species and their potential human uses. This is in contrast to the systematic weed control generally implemented by farmers and gardeners to increase crop productivity (Fuhlendorf et al 2009) and may be due to the fact that the main objective of these gardens is not food production. Second, gardeners use traditional seed varieties in contrast to the official recommendation to use those from official catalogs.…”

Section: Gardening Practicesmentioning

confidence: 91%

Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships

Torres¹,

Nadot²,

Prévot³

2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Community-based efforts are essential to address urban social-ecological challenges. Here, we focus on French community gardens. Through participant observation and semistructured interviews, this study seeks to provide empirical evidence on: (1) what motivates volunteer gardeners in French community gardens to undertake this activity, (2) what practices take place in the gardens, and (3) which individual and collective processes are associated with gardeners' experiences in the gardens. Through these questions, we aim to understand how these initiatives relate to environmental stewardship. Our results show that environmental, social, and selfmotivations are the drivers behind gardeners' participation in the gardens. It seems that involvement in the gardens provides opportunities to fulfill those needs and/or motives through different interrelated processes between the individual with him/herself, the human collective, and nature such as: contemplating nature and benefiting from sensory experiences, having access to environmental education, experiencing individual and collective organization, renewing social-ecological relationships, and facing local challenges. We note that French community gardens provide arenas for new experiences of nature. In addition, even if gardens' biophysical features and gardening practices allow a series of processes that provide social and ecological benefits and outcomes, these gardens refer to environmental stewardship practices by cultivating relational values. These values provide opportunities for innovative ways of creative conservation, reflecting how care for ourselves extends to care for others, for places, and for nature.

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Does herbicide weed control increase livestock production on non-equilibrium rangeland?

Cited by 21 publications

References 31 publications

Diverse Swards and Mixed-Grazing of Cattle and Sheep for Improved Productivity

Diverse Swards and Mixed-Grazing of Cattle and Sheep for Improved Productivity

Resilience in Forage and Grazinglands

Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships

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