Rotational cattle grazing improves understory vegetation biodiversity and structural complexity in oil palm plantations

Abstract

Herbicide overuse decimates understory vegetation, including those beneficial plants which may lead to a reduction of some production‐related ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, water regulation, natural pest control, and pollination. Such conventional weed management practices need to be replaced with environmentally friendly methods such as ecological grazing to make palm oil supply chain environmentally sustainable. Contrary to chemical weeding, livestock integration is believed to be a useful tool to control weeds without negative impact to human health and the environment. However, little is known about the influence of different livestock grazing practices on oil palm understory vegetation. Thus, the present study investigates the effects of weed management practices (i.e., rotational grazing, free‐ranged grazing, and conventional weeding) on understory vegetation species richness, composition assemblages, and structural complexity. Based on plant surveys that were conducted on 360 sampling points, 120 understory vegetation species consisting of grasses, sedges, ferns, and legume covers were recorded. We found understory vegetation composition assemblages were different between treatments. Results revealed that the number of understory vegetation species, coverage, and height were significantly higher in rotational grazing compared with other practices. Given the major contribution of vegetation composition assemblages and structure on palm oil productions and biodiversity, oil palm growers should adopt rotational livestock grazing as a part of an integrated pest management strategy to control understory vegetation.

How do management decisions impact butterfly assemblages in smallholding oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia?

“…When doing the perimeter walks, we counted the number of palms on each side of the plantation, multiplying this to calculate the total number of palms. We also recorded the density of butterfly nectar sources (plants with open flowers as nectar sources, identified using Barnes & Chan, 1990; Fee et al., 2017; Maizatul‐Suriza & Idris, 2012; Nobilly et al., 2021; Ya'acob et al., 2022), following the methods of Steffan‐Dewenter and Tscharntke (1997): using a scale of 0–5, with 0 = absent or no flower, 1 = <0.5 flowers per m 2 , 2 = <1 flower per m 2 , 3 = <5 flowers per m 2 , 4 = <10 flowers per m 2 and 5 = >10 flowers per m 2 . This assessment was carried out separately for each individual plant species observed, and the average sums were calculated for all flowering wild plants across the four perimeters and central path (see Table S3 and Figure S2).…”

Analysis of Weed Communities in Solar Farms Located in Tropical Areas—The Case of Malaysia

“…From each quadrat survey, we determined and measured (i) vegetation height-mean of readings (cm) from four corners at each established quadrat; (ii) vegetation coverage-taken using the smartphone application Canopeo [36] (Oklahoma State University); (iii) total number of species-number of species counted within the 1 m 2 quadrat; (iv) species density-total abundance of each recorded species within the 1 m 2 quadrat. The method used for the quadrat survey was adapted from a previous study [37].…”

“…(ii) vegetation coverage-taken using the smartphone application Canopeo [36] homa State University); (iii) total number of species-number of species counted the 1 m 2 quadrat; (iv) species density-total abundance of each recorded species the 1 m 2 quadrat. The method used for the quadrat survey was adapted from a pr study [37]. The collected field data were analyzed using GenStat Ver.…”

Ectoparasite infestation on cattle husbandry in oil palm plantation afdeling II, North Sumatra

“…Residues from oil palm plants and processing byproducts offer potential as feed sources for ruminant livestock, while animal waste can serve as beneficial fertilizer for oil palm cultivation. Grasses growing in between oil palm rows and along plantation roadsides can act as a source of green fodder for livestock [4][5][6][7]. Integrating oil palm production and cattle farming is a viable strategy for small-scale farmers and plantation management to enhance resource utilization efficiency within plantations and achieve self-sufficiency in beef production in Malaysia [7].…”