Locally appropriate strategies | Americas-based research sites on the horizon as project expands globally
LINDELL BEACH, B.C. — A recent study by researchers in Britain and Australia outlines eight strategies to help livestock producers cut costs and boost food quality and quantity.
The strategies include feeding animals less human-required food, raising regionally appropriate animals, maintaining animal health, using smart supplements, consuming quality rather than quantity, raising livestock according to local cultures, tracking costs weighted to benefits and following best practices.
“A large proportion of the Earth’s land surface is permanent pasture,” said Mark Eisler, a professor of global farm animal health at the University of Bristol’s School of Veterinary Sciences in Britain and lead author of the study.
Read Also
Anti-separatist movement targets rural Alberta
Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s anti-separatism Alberta Forever Canada petition campaign expects to run full steam ahead into the province’s farming regions
“High fibre crop residues are not usually pelleted. In terms of meat yield, we are advocating consumption of less meat of higher quality, such as grass-fed (livestock), in developed nations.”
The study, called Steps to Sustainable Livestock, was published last month in the journal Nature. It said 70 percent of grains used by developed nations are fed to livestock with 40 percent going to ruminants, mostly cattle.
However, these animals thrive on pasture and can eat hay, silage and high fibre crop residues unpalatable to humans. They can graze marginal areas, such as mountain slopes and wetlands, and their unique digestive systems can break down these foods into valuable calories and quality protein.
This shift toward greater grazing management allows more agricultural land for production of human food.
As well, raising indigenous livestock makes practical and environmental sense. Native ruminants not only have immune systems resistant to local pathogens but are adapted to climatic conditions and can cope with localized weather extremes.
“Farmers in Asia and Africa already use native breeds but are often encouraged to shift to exotic breeds because of their potential for higher yields,” said Eisler.
“But this potential is often not achieved in developing world situations (because of their) poor resistance to heat stress, infectious diseases and parasites.”
The report also said that maintaining animal health is the most effective way to increase production.
“In low- and middle-income nations, 13 livestock related zoonoses (diseases that can infect humans and animals) cause 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths each year,” it said.
Animal and human diseases are often viewed in isolation, but protective husbandry such as cleanliness, quarantines as required and vaccines help mitigate the spread of disease.
High density production farming puts more animals at risk and requires the use of costly antibacterial medications, which in turn lead to antibiotic resistance. The report recommended reduced crowding to protect against whole herd infection.
Smart use of supplements encourages microbes in the rumen and promotes better nutrition.
“Supplements are often locally available and farmers are willing to use them if their benefits can be demonstrated by example,” said Eisler.
A water fern cultivated in local ponds in India provides extra protein for cattle and goats, which are fed protein-deficient elephant grass.
During Australia’s dry fall, sheep nibble on a deep-rooted perennial tar-brush, which combats gastrointestinal nematodes and acidosis, a pathological condition associated with the accumulation of acid in blood and body tissues.
An enzyme in red clover increases a cow’s ability to use dietary protein. Dairy cows that graze on clover have been shown to produce more milk.
As well, properly managed rotational grazing can encourage the growth of a wider range of plants, foster a healthy ecosystem and improve carbon capture by plants and soil.
The report said that one cow produces up to 70 kilograms of manure per day, providing enough annual fertilizer for 2 1/2 acres of wheat. That is equivalent to 128 kilograms of synthetic nitrogen derived from the use of fossil fuels.
The research team has established three farm “platforms” to explore best practices of farming from a global perspective. Two focus on naturally adapted livestock and native plants: one at the University of Western Australia Future Farm in Pingelly, which has a Mediterranean climate and where water conservation is crucial, and the other at the Thiruvazhamkunnu Livestock Re-search Station in Kerala, India, which has humid, tropical conditions and grazing is limited.
The third platform is at the Rothamsted Research North Wyke Farm in Devon, Great Britain, where cattle and sheep graze on three hydrologically isolated 55 acre farmlets to compare nutrient cycling and productivity under different pasture management strategies.
Eisler said researchers are working on establishing testing platforms in the Americas and China.
