Optimising pasture-based ruminant production systems

优化牧场反刍动物生产系统

• 批准号: 1939215
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1939215
• 关键词: Optimising; pasture; based; ruminant; production

With the annual throughputs of 2.94 million cattle and 14.6 million sheep, UK ruminant farms and the associated sectors produce meat products worth £9.8 billion per year and their existence is widely considered to be indispensable for the maintenance of various ecosystem services and rural communities. In particular, pasture-based ruminant production systems utilise land unsuitable for arable crop production and therefore have the potential to contribute to global food security without initiating the food-feed competition for natural resources.At the same time, ruminants are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, with 10 percent of human-induced carbon footprint attributable to their production around the world, and also a leading polluter of waterways. Given this economic-environmental trade-off, there is a clear and urgent need to identify strategies for improving the system-wide performance of the industry.Recent research based on producer surveys has shown that the economic performance of UK livestock farms have a level of variability far beyond what can be explained by the geographical and biophysical conditions they operate in, and even more crucially, their economic performance is strongly correlated with environmental performance. This finding, combined with the estimated figure that more than 90% of global warming potential along the UK value chain for beef and lamb are attributable to on-farm activities, suggests that economic optimisation of ruminant production systems will not only benefit UK society economically but also environmentally.Using the rich dataset and state-of-the-art facilities available at Rothamsted Research's North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP: http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/farmplatform), this project provides the student with a unique opportunity to investigate options to enhance environmental performance of pasture-based ruminant production systems by the means of economic optimisation. While a stronger emphasis will be placed on sheep production systems (which have been shown to be environmentally less efficient than beef systems in the UK), strategies for optimal resource allocation between the beef and lamb sectors will also be explored as part of the research. Outputs from the project will be directly disseminated to the industry through the large network of commercial farms maintained by AHDB, the levy board for English agricultural producers who sponsors this research.

英国反刍动物农场和相关部门每年生产294万头牛和1460万只羊，每年生产价值98亿英镑的肉类产品，它们的存在被广泛认为是维护各种生态系统服务和农村社区不可或缺的。特别是，以牧草为基础的反刍动物生产系统利用的土地不适合种植农作物，因此有可能为全球粮食安全做出贡献，而不会引发对自然资源的食物-饲料竞争。与此同时，反刍动物是温室气体排放的重要来源，全世界10%的人类引起的碳足迹可归因于反刍动物的生产，也是水道的主要污染者。鉴于这种经济-环境权衡，明确和迫切需要确定改善行业全系统绩效的战略。最近基于生产者调查的研究表明，英国畜牧场的经济绩效具有一定程度的可变性，远远超出了其经营的地理和生物物理条件所能解释的范围，更重要的是，它们的经济业绩与环境业绩密切相关。这一发现，结合估计数字，即超过90%的全球变暖潜能沿着英国的牛肉和羊肉的价值链可归因于农场活动，表明反刍动物生产系统的经济优化不仅有利于英国社会的经济，而且有利于环境。使用丰富的数据集和最先进的设施，在Rothamsted研究的北怀克农场平台（西北边境省：http：//www.rothamsted.ac.uk/farmplatform），该项目为学生提供了一个独特的机会，通过经济优化的手段，研究提高以牧场为基础的反刍动物生产系统的环境性能的选择。虽然将更加强调绵羊生产系统（已被证明在英国比牛肉系统的环境效率低），但作为研究的一部分，还将探讨牛肉和羊肉部门之间的最佳资源分配战略。该项目的成果将通过AHDB（赞助这项研究的英国农业生产者征税委员会）维护的大型商业农场网络直接传播给该行业。