Financial transition and costs of sustainable agricultural intensification practices on a beef cattle and crop farm in Brazil's Amazon

Abstract

The intensification of Brazil's beef cattle production system can involve different strategies to increase beef production while reducing deforestation in the Amazon biome and mitigating climate change. This study economically evaluates a cooperating beef farm in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil's Amazon biome over three crop years (2015–16 to 2017–18), transitioning from an extensive grazing system to a semi-intensive system using five sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) practices. These five practices include (1) grain supplementation for cattle, (2) pasture fertilization, (3) pasture re-seeding, (4) crop–livestock integration (CLI) and (5) irrigated and fertilized pasture that is rotationally grazed. The relative costs of these five SAI strategies used on this cooperating farm are compared. The adoption of SAI strategies increased beef productivity 5.7% (228–241 kg live-weight sold per hectare) and gradually improved net farm income by ~130% over the 3 years of transition (−US$94.79 to $29.80 ha−1). Grain supplementation (US$188 ha−1) had the cheapest cost per hectare, followed by pasture fertilization (US$477 ha−1) and pasture reseeding (US$650 ha−1). The most costly practice was in-ground irrigation of fenced rotationally grazed pasture (US$1600 ha−1) with the second most costly being CLI (US$672 ha−1). Despite adoption challenges of these SAI practices, past research confirm these five practices can increase beef productivity and profitability while reducing carbon footprint. Regardless of the cost per hectare of each practice, farmer adoption can be improved through education, support and incentives from both the public and private sectors.

Improve Pasture or Feed Grain? Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Profitability, and Resource Use for Nelore Beef Cattle in Brazil’s Cerrado and Amazon Biomes

“…Average Amazon precipitation exceeded that in the Cerrado for most of the year (Figure 2). [36]. Average Amazon precipitation exceeded that in the Cerrado for most of the year (Figure 2).…”

“…The average precipitation for the combined observations from the cooperating farm and Cuiabá weather stations averaged 1248 mm/year from 2015-2018. For the Amazon biome cooperating farm from 2015-2016 through 2017-2018, average temperature was 28 °C (minimum 17 °C and maximum 39 °C), with averages for rainfall at 1904 mm/year, solar radiation at 17.1 MJ/m 2 , and wind speed averaged 1.2 m/s [36]. Average Amazon precipitation exceeded that in the Cerrado for most of the year (Figure 2).…”

Intensification: A Key Strategy to Achieve Great Animal and Environmental Beef Cattle Production Sustainability in Brachiaria Grasslands

“…Ruminants are often blamed for methane emissions, and it is often proposed to shift from ruminant to monogastric production in order to reduce the carbon footprint of our diet [8,9]. However, this evolution can, to a certain extent, increase feed-food competition.…”

“…All available data show that, contrary to what is often said, ruminants are very efficient animals in producing proteins, provided they are fed with forage and inedible byproducts. Moreover, higher animal production can be obtained by increasing the concentrate level in the diets of cattle, thus lowering the greenhouse gas emissions in terms of product unit (e.g., kg meat or milk) [9].…”

Could cattle ranching and soybean cultivation be sustainable? A systematic review and a meta-analysis for the Amazon

“…1) aims to achieve a best performing use of land in the livestock sector while restoring unproductive and degraded pastures. A first set of techniques includes rotational grazing (Gil et al 2018, zu Ermgassen et al 2018, Pedrosa et al 2019, improved pasture diversification using forage legumes (Hohnwald et al 2006, Dubeux-Junior et al 2017…”