Sustainable intensification of grass-based ruminant production
2014
Baumont, René | Lewis, E. | Delaby, Luc | Prache, Sophie | Horan, B.
The sustainable or ecological intensification of grass-based food production systems providesan opportunity to align the ever increasing global demand for food with the necessity to regreenruminant production. The challenge for production scientists now is to find innovativeways to improve grass-based production processes to maximize resource use-efficiency basedon improved management practices. The objective of this paper is, firstly, to outline thepotential opportunities to en han ce the yield and quality of grasslands for grazing and conservedforages paying particular attention to species diversity and legumes. Subsequently, the paperaddresses the necessity to choose appropriate animais and management practices to improveproductive and reproductive performance within such systems. Finally, the paper reportsexperimental results from dairy cow and sheep production systems that succeeded in combininghigh animal performance with low environmental impacts.
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