grazing
AGROVOC URI: http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_25243
Fodder banks: For pastoralists or farmers
Outlines the principles and practices of fodder-bank establishment and management in the sub-humid zones of West Africa. Summarises data that indicate the benefit of fodder banks to subsequent crops.
Forage diversity and impact of grazing management on rangeland ecosystems in Mbeere District, Kenya
Foraging behaviour of cattle grazing semi-arid rangelands in the Sahel of Mali
This paper deals with foraging behaviour of cattle grazing semi-arid rangelands in the Sahel of Mali. It discusses the location of study site, vegetation in the grazing orbit, herd management and livestock behaviour. Results on seasonal variation in feed supply, selection of the annual grazing orbit in accessible land and of the daily route in the grazing orbit, selection of herbage mass patches within landscape units and selection of species are also presented in the paper.
Global versus local environmental impacts of grazing and confined beef production systems
Carbon footprint is a key indicator of the contribution of food production to climate change and its importance is increasing worldwide. Although it has been used as a sustainability index for assessing production systems, it does not take into account many other biophysical environmental dimensions more relevant at the local scale, such as soil erosion, nutrient imbalance, and pesticide contamination.
Impact of grazing on plant species richness, plant biomass, plant attribute, and soil physical and hydrological properties of Vertisol in East African highlands
Understanding the problems of grazing land in vertisol areas and seeking long-lasting solutions is the central point where mixed crop livestock is the second stay for the majority of the population. In order to understand this, the current study was conducted at two sites, one with 0-4% slope and the other with 4-8% slope at Ginchi watershed, 80 km west of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The specific objectives of the study were to quantify changes in plant species richness, biomass, plant cover, and soil physical and hydrological properties.
Managing Semi-Arid Rangelands for Carbon Storage: Grazing and Woody Encroachment Effects on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen
High grazing intensity and wide-spread woody encroachment may strongly alter soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools. However, the direction and quantity of these changes have rarely been quantified in East African savanna ecosystem. As shifts in soil C and N pools might further potentially influence climate change mitigation, we quantified and compared soil organic carbon (SOC) and total soil nitrogen (TSN) content in enclosures and communal grazing lands across varying woody cover i.e. woody encroachment levels.
Productividad a largo plazo basados en pasturas con y sin leguminosas en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia
Red Internacional de Evaluación de Pastos Tropicales RIEPT-Amazonia. Reunión (1, 1990, Lima, Perú). Trabajos presentados
The effect of sward surface height on the response to mixed grazing by cattle and sheep
An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of mixed grazing of sheep plus cattle under continuous stocking of permanent pasture at different sward heights. The experiment had a 2 × 3 factorial design, with two sward surface heights (4-5 and 8-10 cm) and three combinations of animal species viz., sheep only, cattle only and sheep plus cattle. There were two replicate plots of each treatment combination and the experiment was conducted over 2 years consecutively.
The use of herders' accounts to map livestock activities across agropastoral landscapes in Semi-Arid Africa
Improved understandings of the agricultural and range ecologies of semi-arid Africa require better information on the spatiotemporal distribution of domestic livestock across agropastoral landscapes. An empirical GIS-based approach was developed for estimating distributions of herded livestock across three agropastoral territories (around 100 km2 each) over a two-year period.
Transhumance in the Tigray highlands (Ethiopia)
Transhumance, the seasonal movement of herds occurring between two points and following precise routes repeated each year, is practiced on a broad scale in the open field areas of Tigray (North Ethiopia). This article presents a characterization of the practice, factors that explain its magnitude, and recent changes. Eleven villages were selected randomly, semistructured interviews were conducted, and data on the sites were collected both in the field and from secondary sources.