Ghimire Suraj, Wang Jingjing, Fleck John R
Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
Water Resources Program, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Jan 6;11(1):100. doi: 10.3390/ani11010100.
The size and productivity of the livestock operations have increased over the past several decades, serving the needs of the growing human population. This growth however has come at the expense of broken connection between croplands and livestock operations. As a result, there is a huge disconnect between the nutrient needs of croplands and the availability of nutrients from livestock operations, leading to a range of environmental and public health issues. This study develops a theoretical framework for multi-scale spatial analysis of integrated crop-livestock systems. Using New Mexico, USA as a case study, we quantify the amount of nitrogen produced by dairy farms in the state and examine if the available nitrogen can be assimilated by the croplands and grasslands across spatial scales. The farm-level assessment identifies that all the farms under study do not have adequate onsite croplands to assimilate the nitrogen produced therein. The successive assessments at county and watershed levels suggest that the among-farm integration across operations could be an effective mechanism to assimilate the excess nitrogen. Our study hints towards the multi-spatial characteristic of the problem that can be pivotal in designing successful policy instruments.
在过去几十年里，畜牧养殖的规模和产量不断增加，以满足不断增长的人口需求。然而，这种增长是以牺牲农田与畜牧养殖之间的联系为代价的。结果，农田的养分需求与畜牧养殖产生的养分供应之间存在巨大脱节，导致一系列环境和公共卫生问题。本研究为农牧结合系统的多尺度空间分析建立了一个理论框架。以美国新墨西哥州为例，我们量化了该州奶牛场产生的氮量，并研究了不同空间尺度下农田和草地能否吸收这些可利用的氮。农场层面的评估表明，所有被研究的农场都没有足够的自有农田来吸收其产生的氮。县和流域层面的后续评估表明，跨农场的综合运营可能是吸收过量氮的有效机制。我们的研究揭示了该问题的多空间特征，这对于设计成功的政策工具可能至关重要。
