‘Rotatinuous’ stocking as a climate-smart grazing management strategy for sheep production

Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the effect of different grazing management strategies on carcass characteristics traits, meat quality and CH4 intensity and yield of lambs grazing Italian ryegrass pastures in Southern Brazil. A grazing trial was performed (2014 and 2015) in a randomized complete block design with two grazing management targets and four replicates. Treatments were traditional rotational stocking (RT), with pre-and post-grazing sward heights of 25 and 5 cm, respectively, and 'Rotatinuous' stocking (RN), with pre-and post-grazing sward heights of 18 and 11 cm, respectively. Castrated crossbred Texel and Polwarth lambs were used.Results indicated that diet cost per kg of dry matter (p = 0.001) and per hectare (p < 0.001) were lower for RN than for RT treatment. Final live weight (p = 0.022) and hot and cold carcass weight (p = 0.006) were greater for the RN treatment. All commercial cuts were greater for RN than for RT treatment. The RN treatment presented greater (p < 0.001) production of carcass, edible food and crude protein.Feed efficiency and feed cost conversion were better for RN than for RT treatment.CH4 intensity per kg of carcass, edible food and crude protein gain were 2.6, 2.7 and 2.1 times lower (p < 0.001) for RN. Moreover, CH4 yield was lower (p = 0.014) for RN than for RT treatment, with an average of 7.6 and 8.3% of the gross energy intake, respectively. We conclude that the 'Rotatinuous' stocking results in a greater carcass production, carcass quality and lower diet cost, and CH4 intensity and yield of grazing lambs. Adopting this grazing management strategy could enhance both lamb production and mitigation of CH4 intensity and yield in grazing ecosystems, which could be considered a good example of climate-smart livestock production.

Low-Intensity, High-Frequency Grazing Strategy Increases Herbage Production and Beef Cattle Performance on Sorghum Pastures

“…Carvalho [ 17 ] refers to this as the apparent trade-off of pasture management. However, previously, with temperate pastures [ 18 , 41 ] and in this work, with tropical forages, it is demonstrated that this classic trade-off can be overcome by adopting a LIHF, based upon animal-behavioral response as a function of sward structure (i.e., intake rate).…”

Land-Use Intensification Trends in the Rio De La Plata Region of South America: Toward Specialization or Recoupling Crop and Livestock Production

“…PISA is a reconciliatory solution model of blended good farming practices applied in a context-specific and holistic way aiming at agricultural development and sustainability. Integrated crop-livestock systems [34] , conservation agriculture [89] , climate-smart agriculture [90] , ecological intensification [88] , farm system design [91] , and the Rotatinuous stocking concept [92] are examples of technological frameworks that PISA promotes to accomplish parallel goals if saving land, reducing family workloads, producing more nutritious food and increasing farm profitability, in a customized site-by-site context. PISA is inspired by Nature and aims to be flexible and adaptable to any food production system in any part of the world.…”

“…The transition from current farming practices to ecological intensification is mediated through a strategic first step, which must be an intervention of no-cost, and at the same time, one that deeply affects all system functioning. The adoption of the Rotatinuous stocking concept [92,95] is a first step that enhances nutrient gathering from pasture and decreases the need for silage and concentrates, thus decreasing costs and family workloads. Milk production and quality increase in the short term.…”

Reconciling the Plant-Animal Interface: Convergence of Optimal Herbage Accumulation and Intake Rate by Sheep Grazing Tall Fescue

“…For animals in this optimal pre-grazing SSH condition, high intake of highly digestible forage occurs, providing increases in feed conversion e ciency, carcass production and carcass quality and reductions in diet cost and enteric methane emissions (Savian et al 2018(Savian et al , 2021Zubieta et al 2021), all of which are criteria that should be prioritized in grazing management strategies. Parson et al (1988) discuss the defoliation process, based on the growth curve of plants under different intensities of sward depletion.…”