Description

Practice abstract

Managing grazing to improve pasture productivity and animal intake is a general objective of beef farms, but it has a special importance where herbage production is scarce, and biomass is valuable to produce hay stocks. That is the case of silvo-pastoral systems in the Mediterranean region, where beef cattle commonly graze freely. The use of rationed and rotational grazing can improve herbage intake by cattle and pasture composition and quality. The farmer Gian Mario Costaggiu runs a farm which features both semi-natural permanent pastures, overseeded in late-summer, and annual pastures, sown in early autumn. Water availability on pastures is guaranteed by the presence of concrete troughs fed by spring or well water. To improve pasture utilisation by animals, the farmer adopted rationed grazing management in permanent pastures during the most favourable season (spring). Electric fences are used to delimit areas of about 3,000 square meters in which animals graze two hours a day for a maximum of three consecutive days to favour the complete grass utilisation. Rotational grazing on small paddocks is used on annual forage crops. In the latter case, paddocks are delimited by wire fences and electric fences. Finally, animals graze freely during summer months and drought periods on stubbles and dry vegetation. Animal rations are integrated with grain-legume seed mixtures accordingly to the animal needs in each season. The effect of this management on animals is to increase their herbage intake and improve weight gain with less biomass waste, which is valuable for haymaking. Moreover, pastures are protected from overgrazing. 

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