The application of ecologically intensive principles to the systemic redesign of livestock farms on native grasslands: A case of co-innovation in Rocha, Uruguay

Managing Grass Height for Birds and Livestock: Insights from the Río de la Plata Grasslands

“…In this sense, tussocks, which provide habitat heterogeneity for grassland birds ( Comparatore et al 1996 ;Pretelli et al 2018 ), are expected to increase with decreasing grazing intensity as they are less selected by cattle ( Ruggia et al 2021 ). However, the limited time frame of our study may not have allowed enough time for these plants to sufficiently grow and contribute to increased heterogeneity.…”

“…In the Rio de la Plata Grasslands, most grazing systems in native grasslands traditionally maintain low grass heights, which limits their productive capacity ( Soriano et al 1992 ;Modernel et al 2019 ). Previous research has demonstrated that by implementing cattle management practices, it is possible to increase grass height, resulting in higher herbage mass that benefits livestock production and other ecosystem services ( Ruggia et al 2021 ). However, the response of bird species to such changes in grass height remains little explored.…”

Diversification increases the resilience of European grassland‐based systems but is not a one‐size‐fits‐all strategy

“…Benefiting from local opportunities allows the preservation of grassland biodiversity while also enhancing farm socio‐economic resilience, and its mitigation and adaptation potential to climate change and other perturbations. These opportunities are enabled by processes such as experimenting, knowledge sharing, farmer networking and cooperating (Klerkx & Begemann, 2020), which are developing in European grassland‐based systems (Dernat et al, 2022) and worldwide (Ruggia et al, 2021).…”

Transforming livestock productivity through watershed interventions: A case study of Parasai-Sindh watershed in Bundelkhand region of Central India

“…Its contribution to the agricultural GDP has been higher than that of the crop sector in the past decades because of the increased demand for animal-based products (Ali, 2007;Enahoro et al, 2018;Komarek et al, 2021). In the coming decades, consistent growth of the livestock sector could turn it into the engine for agricultural growth (Suthar et al, 2019), export earnings (Birthal et al, 2006), and as a source of livelihood for rural households (Ruggia et al, 2021;Varijakshapanicker et al, 2019). India is the largest milk producer globally.…”