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Constraints Faced By Farmers In Fodder Production & Livestock Management In Western U.P., India, Manju Suman, Ashok Kumar, Vikash Kumar

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The agrarian economy of the region is fully dependent on agriculture and related activities as clearly revealed by the utilization of land resource in the region. Fodder crop plays vital role in rearing of livestock. Fodder crops are mainly cultivated in kharif ( 87%) followed by rabi (90%) and jayad (45%). India is the largest producer of milk the world. Milk production has been growing at an average rate of 3.45% annum. The per capita availability of milk was around 296 gram per day in 2012-13. India covers about one fifth of livestock population of the world, but the milk …

Understanding Factors Influencing Farmers’ Intention For Adopting Improved Grassland Using The Theory Of Reasoned Action, In The Highlands Of Central Mexico, Carlos Galdino Martínez-García, Carloss Manuel Arriaga-Jordan, Adolfo Armando Rayas-Amor, Peter Dorward, Tahir Rehman

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Low adoption of improved grassland among small-scale dairy farmers has been attributed to different factors such as farmers and household characteristics, farm characteristics, institutional characteristics and capital constraints (Martínez-García et al., 2012). Several researchers illustrate the importance of farmers’ attitude, beliefs and social pressure from the salient referents in the adoption of innovations (Rehman et al., 2007; Rossi Borges et al., 2014). Regarding Mexico, there is a lack of information about understanding of attitudes, beliefs and social pressure underpinning farmers’ intentions to adopt agricultural innovations. In contrast to many adoption studies, it focuses on an innovation that …

The Ecological And Social Effects Of Eco-Environmental Policies On Grassland Rehabilitation In China, Shikui Dong

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grassland degradation and desertification in China have challenged the sustainability of these invaluable natural resources. Since the beginning of 21st century, the Chinese government has set a lot of eco-environmental policies and programs to deal with these problems. To illustrate the effectiveness of these policies and programs in ecological and socio-economic dimensions, a quantitative assessment was conducted through collecting and analyzing the up-to-date information and data in this study. The results indicate that the ecological restoration projects facilitated by the grassland eco-environment policies and programs such as “Returning to Grassland by Excluding Grazing (RGEG)”, “Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Engineering (BTSSCE)” …

Developing Frameworks To Assess Impacts Of Multiple Drivers Of Change On Grassland System, M. E. Wedderburn, Oscar Montes De Oca, Francisco Dieguez

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grassland systems face many simultaneous pressures including market and policy compliance that operate from local to global scale. The ability to adapt to these pressures against a background of constrained natural resources and inputs is vital to the continued success of the grassland livestock industry and all those dependent on its outputs. New Zealand and Uruguay collaborators have been developing a suite of tools and processes embedded in an “innovation platform” to enable farmers, agribusiness and policy planners to engage and collectively learn about the impact of their interacting individual decisions and strategies. We describe the generic framework and demonstrate …

Novel Approaches To Developing On-Farm Biomass Production Systems, S. Ray Smith, Thomas Clarkson Keene, Lee Carol Greenwell, Krista L. Cotten

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Energy security and climate change are issues facing many countries today. Finding clean, renewable fuel sources has provided a challenge to look beyond the obvious and search for new ways to use old resources. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a warm season grass native to many parts of the United States. In 2007, the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture started a collaborative project with the UK Cooperative Extension, farmers in northern Kentucky, Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council and East Kentucky Power Cooperative to explore and demonstrate how switchgrass can be grown, harvested and utilized in an economical …

Famers’ Preferences For Fodder Trees In Agroforestry, Raghunandan Prasad Dwivedi, Sanjeev Kumar

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Agroforestry encompasses land use systems where woody perennials are intentionally grown on the same piece of land with agricultural crops and/or animals either in form of special arrangement of temporal sequence. A good deal of work has been done on the subject during last one and half decade. Agroforestry is an age-old land use that has been practiced for thousand of years by farmers the world over. Agroforestry is a land use that involves deliberate retention, introduction or mixture of trees or other woody perennials in crop/ animal production fields to benefit from the resultant ecological and economic interactions (Nair, …

Role Of Women In Sustainable Management Of Kangayam Grassland, Anil Kumar, J. C. Jeeva, S. Tanuja

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Kangayam grassland is located in the rain shadow area of the Western Ghats in South India between the coordinates 77° 17”E and 77° 55”E longitude and 10° 44” N and 11° 03” N latitude. It receives an annual rainfall of 666 mm. The grassland used to a barren land with overgrown until 150 years ago when the ownership of these lands were given to the local people by the British colonizers under land settlement called ayen pillu (remission in tax) and paravu pillu (grazing rent) (Nicholson,1887). The occupancy rights granted to the cultivators encouraged them to invest in the unproductive …

Technological Need Assessment And Capacity Building Of Farm Women In Livestock Rearing, Sadhna Pandey, Purushottam Sharma, Satyapriya, R. K. Sharma

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

It has been reflected that women farmers are engaged in the livestock rearing for additional income generation for their family. They provide 60 percent of the livestock farming labour. Contribution of woman folk in dairy production system, like in all other land-related activities, is enormous. She harvests fodder-yielding crops and gather fodder and bedding material from the forest areas, make hay and stack it, feed and look after the animals, cleans animal shed, milks the animal, processes and markets the milk, and does almost everything relating to smallholder dairy farming. Men’s role in dairy is limited. He participates only in …

A Proposal For Improving Pastures In Subsistence Farming Systems On The East India Plateau, Shivendra Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Peter Stuart Cornish

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The East India Plateau (EIP) experiences deep poverty despite high rainfall (> 1200 mm). Livelihoods, once derived from Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, now depend on agriculture. Subsistence farmers practice monoculture rice-fallow on small, fragmented landholdings (total < 1 ha). Rice in the undulating landscape was traditionally grown in lowland drainage lines (Fig. 1) but population pressure has forced it onto adjacent terraced slopes (medium-uplands) that now comprise > 80% of the rice area (> 50% of land area). Rice is protected from grazing, but the watershed is otherwise grazed as common land with no pasture management. Grazed uplands are often degraded and unproductive, receiving no inputs. Livestock are limited to large animals providing draft power (males) and manure (fuel, compost), and goats for emergency finance.

Rainfall is not the primary …

Feed And Fodder–A Major Challenge In Cold Arid Region Of Leh, Mahendra Singh Raghuvanshi, R. K. Bhatt, J C. Tewari, Stanzin Landol, Jigmat Stanzin

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Agriculture and animal husbandry in cold arid region are interwoven with the complex fabric of the society in sociocultural, religious and economical ways. Mixed crop-livestock farming systems have exerted a powerful influence on climate of Leh because of dissected topography with high peaks and deep valleys, having immense surface area and substantial area of which is clothed with a massive green mantle of plant cover during cropping season. Increased development in terms of increased agriculture, construction of roads, other miscellaneous constructions, and revenue oriented forestry has accentuated deforestation to meet the demand of fuel, fodders based industries. This has also …

Revolutionary Self-Sustaining Pasture-Crop Rotation Systems Developed By Researcher-Farmer Collaboration For Southern Australian Farming Systems, Belinda Hackney, Angelo Loi, Bradley Nutt, Ronald Yates, Jane Quinn, Janelle Jenkins, John Plitz, Michael O'Hare, Colin Butcher, Anna Butcher, Leslie Weston, Deirdre Lemerle, Ted Wolfe, John Howieson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Mixed farming pasture-crop rotation systems in southern Australia have traditionally relied on subterranean clover and annual medics. Concern over the long-term persistence of these species was raised in the 1980‟s with the cessation of manufacture of suction harvesters required for seed production. Subsequently, their adaptation has been tested due to climate change. More frequent droughts, particularly the millennium drought (2002-2009), increased incidence of false breaks and dry spring conditions causing decline or complete loss of seedbank reserves and failure of new sowings. A concerted effort developing new legume species for Australian farming systems, led by Western Australia, resulted in domestication …

Application Of Payment For Ecosystem Services In China’S Rangeland Conservation: A Social-Ecological System Resilience Perspective, Wenjun Li, Yanbo Li

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) has been adopted by the Chinese government over the past decade as a mechanism to combat regional-scale rangeland degradation. We analyzed some fundamental problems associated with PES application in rangeland management from the perspective of social-ecological system (SES) resilience by using as a case study he PES project of “retire livestock to restore rangeland” in Inner Mongolia. The study findings demonstrated that PES project resulted in obvious negative impacts on local pastoralists’ livelihood and society networks without achieving any substantial rangeland restoration. Such failures are rooted in that PES strategy in which the logic of …

Management Of Rangelands And Forests For Sustainable Mithun Farming By Chakhesang Tribe Of Nagaland, Raj K. Singh, Prakash R. Dutta, Vidya Singh, Akhilesh Kumar, D. Apole Theluo

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Mithun (Bos frontalis) belonging to the family Bovidae is a unique bovine mainly found in the North-Eastern hilly region of India and neighbouring countries (Dhali et al., 2009). The animal has an important place in the socio-economic life of the tribal communities and primarily reared as sacrificial animal during religio-cultural ceremonies. Feeding habits of Mithun differs from their domestic counterparts cattle; like they prefer browsing as compared to the grazing behaviour of the later. Mithun forage on forest grasses, shrubs and tree leaves available in the jungle and they nibble them like goats (Gupta et al., 1996). …

Operator Bias And The Effect Of Training On Visual Assessments Of Pasture Yield For Forage Budgets In Northern Australian Savanna, Nicole B. Spiegel, Peter O'Reagin, Angela Anderson, Megan R. Willis

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Sustainable management of Australia’s extensive northern grazing lands is challenging given its highly variable interannual rainfall and pasture production. Accordingly, a key management recommendation is to adjust stocking rates to match forage supply (O’Reagain et al., 2014). ‘Stocktake’ is a forage budgeting system (Aisthorpe et al., 2004) widely used and promoted to assist graziers make short-term (< 1 year) adjustments of stocking rate. Budgets are typically calculated at the start of the dry season, to ensure sufficient forage for stock and ground cover levels until the first rains some six to nine months later. The software application ‘Future Beef Stocktake Plus’ has also been developed for use on smart devices (http://www.stocktakeplus.com.au/).

A key requirement for forage budgets is an accurate estimate of pasture mass. This is typically done visually with the aid of photo standards of pasture mass, providing a simple, efficient and non-destructive approach. Other key variables of forage budgeting include …

Economics Of Camel Rearing On Grasslands In Gujarat, Khem Chand, B. L. Jangid, Subhash Kachhawa

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Camel in India is primarily reared for carting/draft, agricultural operation, transportation in addition to the secondary utility of milk and hair production (Saini et al 2006). The One humped or Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) is an important livestock species uniquely adapted to hot and arid environments (Schwartz, 1992). It is important livestock specie contributing significantly in rural economy and livelihood of desert dwellers in Kachchh region of Gujarat. It still plays a very distinctive role in various agricultural operations and rural transportation in dry land farming (Rajput and Tripathi, 2005). The Kachchh region of Gujarat has large camel …

Economics Of Bn Hybrid Grass Production Bundelkhand Region Of India: A Case Study, Satendra Kumar, Ravi Pratap Singh, Rajiv K. Agrawal, J. B. Singh, M. M. Das, Sunil Kumar

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Napier grass is also called as Elephant Grass due to its tallness and vigorous vegetative growth. The plants tiller freely and a single clump may produce more than 60 tillers under favorable climatic and soil conditions. Unfortunately, the grass coarse-textured, the leaf blade sheaths as well as sharply serrated, leaf margins. Therefore, cross was made between Bajra which is more succulent, leafy, fine-textured, palatable, fast growing and drought resistant and Napier to combine these qualities with its high yielding potential. The outcome Hybrid Napier is a perennial grass which can be retained on field for 2-3 years. Hybrid napier grass …

Economic Review Of Pasture Development Options For North Australian Beef Enterprises, Neil D. Macleod, Dianne Mayberry, Lindsay Bell, Ian Watson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Beef cattle grazing (~14 million head) native pastures is the dominant economic use of northern grazing lands (2.3 million km2). Few enterprises make positive economic returns in most years or achieve the necessary productivity gains (~2% per annum) to offset an ongoing cost-price squeeze (McCosker et al., 2010). A significant contributor to poor performance is low reproductive performance, management of first calving heifers, calf growth and weaning rates and liveweight gain - linked to nutrition and the low quality of pastures. Pasture development technologies (Gramshaw and Walker, 1988) are available but uptake has been poor. Three pasture development options …

Identifying Priority Areas For Ecosystem Services Management In South Africa, Benis Egoh, Belinda Reyers, Mathieu Rouget, Patrick O’Farrel, David Le Maitre, Richard Cowling

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Studies have highlighted the importance of managing ecosystem services to stop further degradation and transformation, yet very few studies have endeavored to identify priorities. The identification of priority areas for ecosystem services remains the least of objective for all studies that have mapped ecosystem services. Steps for identifying priority areas for management of ecosystem services include identifying features that supply ecosystem services, threats to service provision, potential actions to ensure future supply of service and cost of these actions as well as the availability of alternative means of providing benefits supplied by the service, the capacity to meet human demands …

Quantifying The Economic Value Of Evidence-Based Animal Selection On The Inner Mongolian Desert Steppe, Taro Takahashi, Zhiguo Li, Zhongwu Wang, Guodong Han, Karl Behrendt, David R. Kemp

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Inner Mongolian desert steppe in northwestern China suffers from significant grassland degradation, causing a decrease in producers' income as well as negative off-site impacts (Kemp et al., 2013). Recent studies attribute this problem to a sudden increase in the stocking rate over the last half century, and thus development of an alternative farming system to reduce the animal number is urgently needed (Wang et al., 2011). Scientific experiments and modelling analyses have shown the potential of innovative systems that could deliver a "win-win" solution to local producers and environment (Li et al., 2015). However, the uptake of …

Economic Trade-Offs Of Novel Forage Use In Livestock Production Systems: Insights From Australia, Marta Monjardino, Neil D. Macleod, Dean K. Revell

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Globally, livestock are a major component of agricultural systems and natural resource management, as well as an important contributor to nutrition and livelihoods, but are often undervalued (Herrero et al., 2009). In Australia, livestock production systems occupy half of the available land and contribute to ~50% of gross agricultural production. The main livestock systems are beef cattle grazing at low intensity in the arid and semi-arid regions of northern and central Australia; and sheep flocks integrated in crop-livestock systems in the temperate zone of southern Australia (Bell et al., 2014). Despite increased physical productivity (changes in outputs relative …

Profitability Of Early Weaning Of Beef Cows At Northern Sonora, Mexico: A Rancher Experience, Salomón M. Moreno, Fernando Ibarra-Flores, Martha Martin Rivera, Maria Del Socorro Antunez Navarro, Rafael Retes Lopez, Jesus Fimbres Preciado, Agustín Cabral Martell

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Amount and distribution of precipitation is normally inadequate and uncertain in arid and semiarid Sonoran Desert rangelands. Low precipitation reduces forage quality and quantity and it can negatively influence livestock yield reducing milk production and calf gains. Early removal of the calf from its dam reduces forage needs of the cow-calf enterprise and has been found to improve body weight gain and pregnancy rates in the cow herd (Mulliniks et al., 2013). Additionally, weaning calves early can result in improved animal performance by increasing pregnancy rates, cow body condition scores and increased steer carcass quality while reducing forage needs …

Rangeland Ecosystem Services: Improving Decisions With A Systematic Approach, Joel R. Brown, Neil D. Macleod, Simone Maynard

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Delivering ecosystem services from rangelands represents a unique challenge. While social, ecological and economic complexity and diversity often lend stability to rangeland systems, the broad array of services, users and connections makes the process of identifying what services to manage for, which management practices are most effective and how to deliver them challenging. In addition, lag times between management changes and responses, climatic variability and changes in demand can further complicate decision-making. We propose a structured process that includes: (1) inventory of existing conditions; (2) identification of relevant scenarios; (3) stakeholder involvement; and (4) monitoring for verification based on the …

Greenhouse Sheds For Increasing Livestock Bodyweight In Taipusi, Inner Mongolia, Yang Zheng, Taro Takahashi, David R. Kemp

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grasslands in many developing countries around the world are suffering from degradation, principally as a result of greater grazing pressure from increasing livestock numbers (Kemp and Michalk 2007). In Taipusi County (41°35′ to 42°10′N; 114°51′ to 115°49′ E) of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, traditional winter grazing on pastures with virtually no herbage mass is thought to be exacerbating the grassland condition, as well as being counter-productive to animal production (Zheng et al. 2010). This paper describes a feasibility study of utilizing existing sheds to house sheep during the winter.

The Grasscutter: An Untapped Resource Of Africa’S Grasslands, E. K. Adu, A. Asafu-Adjaye, B. A. Hagan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The grasscutter (or Greater cane rat – Thryonomys swinderianus) is a common rodent in Africa, south of the Sahara. Its distribution ranges from The Gambia to southern Sudan, across the continent down to south Namibia and South Africa (Fritzinger 1995). The grasscutter grows to > 0.5 m in length and weighs ~8 kg. It has characteristic rounded ears, a short nose, coarse bristly hair, and forefeet smaller than its hind feet. Grasscutters are herbivores and their natural diet is mainly grasses and cane, but they also eat bark, fallen fruits, nuts and many different kinds of cultivated crops. Grasscutters get …

Grass-Based Health, Peter Ballerstedt

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A true discussion of sustainability must focus on improving the condition of humanity. Too often, however, such a discussion is a "dialogue of values that defies consensual definition" (Ratner 2004), with participants implicitly accepting as true numerous foundational beliefs that are factually incorrect or unproven. Dietary policies recommending carbohydrate-based diets are one example. Falsehoods persist despite decades of contradictory re-search results and clinical findings, contaminating a variety of diverse disciplines and discussions. A rational, objective discussion of sustainability in grassland agriculture must confront the issue of public health policy, consider our physical health, the fiscal health of our communities, and …

The Effects Of Associated Pod Quality On Seed Recovery And Germination Of Dichrostachys Cinerea And Acacia Tortilis Fed Ruminants, Piet Monegi, Julius Ttjelele, Khanyisile Mbatha

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Pods of different plant species form an important part of the diet of livestock during the dry season due to their high nutritional value compared to grasses. Therefore, herbivores browsing pods of certain woody plants may disperse intact seeds that can potentially germinate. The quality of associated diet such as pod chemistry (i.e. protein and tannin concentration) is one of the most important determinants of success of livestock faecal seed dispersal (Tjelele et al., 2012: Tjelele et al., 2014). The objective of this study was to determine the effects of associated pods quality (i.e. nutrients and tannins …

Research On The Most Sustainable Livestock Carrying Capacity In Grassland Management, Li Yang, Suying Li

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Although the concept of livestock carrying capacity is highly controversial (Gillson and Hoffman 2007; Roe 1997), it is still used as the key index for grassland management, especially in China. ‘X city’ which has enacted a Lives-tock and Forage Balance Policy (LFBP) since the beginning of this century as part of a trial to test the effectiveness of the policy. The LFBP Implementing Rule in ‘X city’ (Trial Implementation) developed in 2002 was designed with the purpose of trying to adjust the utilization of grassland based on a predetermined livestock carrying capacity (LCC). We collected information on the LCC adopted …

Endozoochorus Seed Dispersal By Jalauni Sheep In Tropical Climate: Recovery And Germinability Under Natural Pasture Grazing, Nityanada Das, S. B. Maity

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Herbivores can play an important role in seed dispersal. Climate, available vegetation for grazing, pasture situation can determine the seed dispersal trends by the grazing animals. Tropical climate of India with wide climatic variation leads to fluctuating herbage quality and available biomass. Ruminants spread plants through fecal pellets after grazing at one place and fecal voiding at another. Herbivores can play an important role in seed dispersal. Climate, available vegetation for grazing, pasture situation can determine the seed dispersal trends by the grazing animals. Tropical climate of India with wide climatic variation leads to fluctuating herbage quality and available biomass. …

Impact Of Grazing On Soil Seed Bank Replenishment Under The Mediterranean Climate Of Northern Syria, Abdoul Aziz Niane, P. C. Struik, Murari Singh, Zewdie Bishaw

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Rangelands represent 70% of the semi-arid and arid Mediterranean land mass. It is a habitat for millions of people whose livelihood depends on animal husbandry. The revolutionary developments in the animal husbandry and veterinary medicines resulted in exponential increases in livestock and human populations living on and from dry lands. To respond to population growth, expansion on urbanization, transportation and road networks, land reform and rural development policies forced nomads to adopt sedentary lifestyles. The demographic changes coupled with national and international border crossing restrictions escalated opportunistic cultivation, and excessive exploitation of the scarce and slowly renewable vegetation cover of …

Effect Of Pretreatments On Seed Dormancy And Seedling Growth In Anjan Grass (Cenchrus Ciliaris), R. P. Nagar, S. S. Meena

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Anjan grass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) is native to tropical, sub-tropical Asia and Africa. It can grow on wide range of soils varying from sandy to harder heavy textured soils with annual rainfall of 350- 800 mm and up to an altitude of 1000 m. Among different rangeland grasses, it is considered palatable and nutritious grass for all kinds of grazing animals. It contains high percentage of protein (8-10%). One of the reasons for low production of pasture is poor plant density which might be due to low seed germination. The seed dormancy in range grasses hampers in establishment of …