Dablin Lucy, Lewis Simon L, Milliken William, Monro Alexandre, Lee Mark A
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, London TW9 3AE, UK.
Department of Geography, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Dec 17;11(12):3585. doi: 10.3390/ani11123585.
Assessing the palatability of forage from locally adapted trees could improve the sustainability of livestock production systems. However, grasses continue to dominate livestock feed across the Amazon. We established a silvopastoral cattle farming system in Peru, comparing three different forage tree species with grass monocultures using a randomised block design. Trees were arranged in alleys of 0.5 × 7.5 m, planted alongside grass, and were directly browsed by cattle. Browse removal was estimated by three methods: destructive sampling, canopy measurements and leaf counts. We found that all three tree species were palatable to cattle. Plots containing trees and grass produced more available forage (mean > 2.2 Mg ha) for cattle than the grass monocultures (mean = 1.5 Mg ha). Destructive sampling below 1.6 m demonstrated that cattle consumed 99% of the available forage, 75% of the available forage and 80% of the available forage in 8 days. This research demonstrates methodologies to estimate the intake of locally adapted browse species by cattle and highlights the potential benefits of silvopastoral systems in the Amazon. Planting trees could also benefit animal health and provide ecosystem services such as soil regeneration, enhanced nutrient cycling and carbon capture.
评估本地适应性强的树木的草料适口性，有助于提高畜牧生产系统的可持续性。然而，在整个亚马逊地区，草类仍然是牲畜饲料的主要来源。我们在秘鲁建立了一个林牧结合的养牛系统，采用随机区组设计，将三种不同的饲料树种与单一草类种植进行比较。树木种植在0.5×7.5米的行间，与草一起种植，供牛直接啃食。通过三种方法估算啃食量：破坏性采样、树冠测量和叶片计数。我们发现，所有三种树种对牛来说都很适口。与单一草类种植（平均产量为1.5公吨/公顷）相比，种植树木和草的地块为牛提供了更多的可用草料（平均产量>2.2公吨/公顷）。在1.6米以下进行的破坏性采样表明，牛在8天内消耗了99%的可用草料、75%的可用草料和80%的可用草料。这项研究展示了估算牛对本地适应性强的啃食树种摄入量的方法，并突出了亚马逊地区林牧系统的潜在益处。种植树木还可以有益于动物健康，并提供诸如土壤再生、增强养分循环和碳捕获等生态系统服务。
