Sustainable legume-based pastures | [Sostenibilidad en pastos con base en leguminosas]
1990
The Pasture Development Unit (PDU) of the Tropical Pastures Program (TPP), consisting of the Nitrogen Fixation and Cycling, Pasture Quality and Productivity, Soil/Plant Relationships and Nutrient Cycling, Ecophysiology and the Savanna Ecology Sections formulated and established a major field experiment at Carimagua during 1990. The experiment seeks to measure the interactions between stocking rates and fertilizer levels on the components of contrasting legume/grass associations grown on soils of differing textures. Measurements will be make of nitrogen fixation and cycling, cycling and use-efficiency of other nutrients, especially phosphorus, root distribution and activity, soil micro- macro-fauna, soil organic matter, tissue turnover of shoots and roots, plant relations including population dynamics, digestibility, animal diet selection, and liveweight gains. The PDU has sought the collaboration of Dr. John Thornley of the UK Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, who wrote the Hurley model of a ryegrass pasture grazed by sheep, to model the behavior of those tropical mixed legume/grass pastures grazed by cattle. Preliminary evaluation by Dr. Thornley and the PDU suggests that the project is feasible. In September, a group of experts from Australia, New Zealand, France and Latin America contributed to a workshop, "Nutrient Cycling in Tropical Pastures", and evaluated the Unit's plans. They concluded that the project was feasible, and had sound prospects of meeting its objectives.
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