Diverse forage mixtures to optimise ruminant animal production, nutrient use efficiency, environmental impact, biodiversity, and resilience

多种饲料混合物可优化反刍动物生产、养分利用效率、环境影响、生物多样性和恢复力

• 批准号: BB/N004353/1
• 负责人: Christopher Reynolds
• 金额: $ 106.84万
• 依托单位: University of Reading
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FN004353%2F1
• 关键词: Diverse; forage; mixtures; optimise; ruminant

Growth and supply of pasture is the most cost effective way to feed sheep and cattle. Pasture is comprised mainly of ryegrass, or ryegrass mixed with white or red clover, with the total amount of pasture produced dependent on the climate, management, soil, and amount of fertiliser used. Ryegrass and clover thrive in a moist, cool environment, but these 'optimal' conditions are occurring less often due to an unpredictable and changing climate. Both drought and soil water-logging reduce the amount of forage that can be grown, which affects farm productivity and, ultimately, increases the cost of producing UK 'home grown' milk and meat.There are a number of essential nutrients that plants need for growth. Most of these nutrients are supplied through the soil but others such as nitrogen (N) are lacking for many plants and therefore need to be added in the form of a mineral fertiliser. Mineral fertilisers are expensive to produce through reliance on oil, and are detrimental to the environment through their production and contribution to soil nitrous oxide emissions and pollution of waterways.A solution to these concerns is through the use of a greater diversity or variety of forage plants. The more plant species in an ecosystem the healthier, more robust and resilient it is to changing environments. Diverse mixtures containing drought-tolerant and flood-tolerant plants can provide a source of high quality feed in the face of erratic weather patterns, above and beyond that of typical climate-specific pastures. These diverse plants include legumes which reduce the need for mineral fertilisers because they provide an excellent source of N for pastures due to their ability to convert or 'fix' unusable atmospheric N gas. As a result this improves soil fertility, forage production, and enables N to be better utilised at the animal and farm scales. This, combined with reduced methane emissions from livestock fed diverse forage mixtures can reduce the carbon footprint of milk and meat production. These benefits however, can only be achieved with greater farm uptake of such forages.The ultimate aim of this project is to achieve high yields of good quality forage for livestock production whilst having a positive and long term impact on the environment. We envisage that this can be achieved by utilising diverse forage mixtures that have the potential to be productive during more challenging climatic scenarios, as well as improving N use efficiency, compared to ryegrass or ryegrass/clover pastures. The project will include a series of agronomic and 'on farm' evaluations of the performance of diverse forage mixtures, formulated for fertility building, resilience, and drought tolerance. Diverse mixture formulations will be based on our previous research and industry needs, and compared to conventional ryegrass and fertiliser. The forage treatments will be compared across a range of environments over multiple seasons in the southern UK and their feeding value for livestock and effects on N utilisation will be measured in a series of nutrition studies with growing cattle. The results will be integrated using existing farm scale models of nutrient balance and ecosystems services to determine the overall benefits of diverse swards in terms of nutrient cycling and the wider ecosystem, and the results disseminated through participatory workshops. The research outcomes from this project will deliver rapid, high impact results for increasing on-farm sustainability in terms of livestock production systems, soils and the environment.

牧场的生长和供应是喂养绵羊和牛的最具成本效益的方式。牧场主要由黑麦草或黑麦拉斯与白色或红三叶草混合在一起，其牧场的总量取决于使用的气候，管理，土壤和所使用的肥料量。黑麦草和三叶草在潮湿，凉爽的环境中蓬勃发展，但是由于气候变化和变化，这些“最佳”条件的发生频率较小。干旱和土壤水灾都减少了可以种植的饲料量，这会影响农场的生产力，并最终增加了生产英国“自制”牛奶和肉的成本。植物需要生长所需的许多必需营养素。这些养分大多数是通过土壤提供的，但缺少许多植物等氮（N）等其他营养素，因此需要以矿物质肥料的形式添加。矿物质肥料通过依赖石油而生产的昂贵，并且通过其生产和对土壤一氧化二氮排放和水道污染的贡献对环境有害。解决这些问题的解决方案是使用更大的多样性或各种饲料工厂。生态系统中的植物物种越多，它对改变环境的健康，更健壮和弹性就越强大。含有耐旱和耐水植物的多种混合物可以在面对不稳定的天气模式的情况下提供高质量的饲料来源，而不是典型的气候特异性牧场。这些不同的植物包括豆类，这些植物减少了对矿物质肥料的需求，因为它们为牧场提供了出色的N来源，因为它们能够转换或“固定”无法使用的大气N气体。结果，这改善了土壤的生育能力，饲料生产，并使N在动物和农场尺度上可以更好地利用N。加上饲养多种草料混合物的牲畜的甲烷排放减少可以减少牛奶和肉类生产的碳足迹。但是，这些好处只能通过更大的农场吸收这种饲料来实现。该项目的最终目的是为牲畜生产获得高质量饲料的高收益，同时对环境产生积极和长期的影响。我们设想，与Ryegrass或Ryegrass/Ryegrass/Clover Pastures相比，我们可以利用具有在更具挑战性的气候场景中具有生产力的各种草料混合物来实现这一目标。该项目将包括一系列的农艺学和“农场”评估，对各种草料混合物的表现，为生育能力，韧性和耐旱性制定。各种混合物的配方将基于我们以前的研究和行业需求，并与传统的黑麦草和肥料相比。将在英国南部多个季节的各个季节中进行饲料处理，并将其对牲畜的饲养价值和对N利用的影响进行比较。结果将使用现有的养分平衡和生态系统服务的农场规模模型进行整合，以确定营养自行车和更广泛的生态系统的各种间隔的总体好处，并通过参与性研讨会进行了传播。该项目的研究成果将为牲畜生产系统，土壤和环境而言增加农场可持续性的快速，高影响结果。

项目成果

Annual biomass yield and composition of three multi-species forage mixtures compared with perennial ryegrass

三种多品种饲料混合物与多年生黑麦草的年生物量产量和组成比较

• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Z.E. Barker

Effect of soil mositure on biomass and species composition of three multi-species swards compared with perennial ryegrass

与多年生黑麦草相比，土壤湿度对三种多物种草丛生物量和物种组成的影响

• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: ZE Barker

Growth rates of beef steers fed forage mixtures over two complete grazing seasons

两个完整放牧季节饲喂饲料混合物的肉牛的生长率

• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: D. J. Humphries

Comparison of forage digestibility and methane emission for cattle fed on pastures of increasing species complexity compared with n fertilized perennial ryegrass

与施氮肥的多年生黑麦草相比，在物种复杂性增加的牧场上饲养的牛的饲料消化率和甲烷排放量的比较

• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: D. J. Humphries

Application of Sentinel-2A data for pasture biomass monitoring using a physically based radiative transfer model

• DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2018.09.028
• 发表时间: 2018-12
• 期刊: Remote Sensing of Environment
• 影响因子: 13.5
• 作者: S. Punalekar;Anne Verhoef;Tristan Quaife;D. Humphries;Louise Bermingham;C. K. Reynolds