fertilisation rates; food security; grassland management; livestock systems; mowing regimes; net productivity; Agronomy and Crop Science; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Abstract :
[en] Current livestock systems are often criticised for their competition with food and land, but they are rarely compared to optimised livestock systems in this matter. The net productivity indicator offers insights into potential improvements. We calibrated a process-based grass growth model (LINGRA-N-Plus) for Walloon grasslands and coupled its output with an animal production model to estimate the potential net productivity achievable on commercial dairy farms in two grassland regions of Wallonia. Three mowing regimes (4C, 5C, and G), three nitrogen (N) fertilisation rates (90N, 225N, and 360N), and two energy corrections (sugar beet pulp or wheat) were tested for the years 2016–2020. Our results showed that potential net productivity ranged from 49% (4C.4C and 90N, grass-only) to 166% (5C.G and 360N, grass + sugar beet pulp) of the current farm sample productivity (267 ± 64 kg HDP ha−1). Notably, similar performance (108% for 5C.G at 225N with sugar beet pulp) could be achieved by commercial farms with lower fertilisation rates than they currently use (285 ± 93 kg N), indicating room for improvement in N use. The variability in potential net productivity was mainly driven by mowing regime and fertilisation rate rather than soil and climate, emphasising management improvements. This suggests the possibility of setting regional net productivity targets. The developed model can guide discussions with farmers on enhancing their contribution to food security.
Disciplines :
Animal production & animal husbandry
Author, co-author :
Battheu-Noirfalise, Caroline ; Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, Gembloux, Belgium ; University of Liege, GxAB-T, Gembloux, Belgium
FRIA - Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture
Funding text :
Funding: The first author is the recipient of a Ph.D. grant financed by the Belgian \u201CFonds pour la Formation \u00E0 la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture\u201D (FRIA), FC47083. The authors thank the Walloon Breeders Association (AWE) and the participating farmers for providing their data, P. Engels (SPW) and M. Javaux (UCLouvain) for their guidance on the methodology for calculating soil parameters in the Walloon Region, Y. Curnel (CRA-W) for his advice on grass growth modelling, J. Herinckx (CRA-W) and F. Williscotte (CRA-W) for their assistance with soil parameter calculations and the extraction of farmers' soil data, D. Knoden (Fourrages Mieux) for his feedback on the model outputs, and V. Decruyenaere (CRA-W) for her help with the VEM calculation.The first author is the recipient of a Ph.D. grant financed by the Belgian \u201CFonds pour la Formation \u00E0 la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture\u201D (FRIA), FC47083. Funding:
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