Effects of Pasture Management Strategies on Carbon Sequestration, Soil Health, and Forage Productivity for Optimizing Cow-Calf Performance using Sustainable Production Practices

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The overall objective is to examine how pasture management/renovation strategies affect sustainable beef production using pasture to address production/cost of production concerns for beef producers and address environmental concerns regarding beef production. We are assessing impacts of diverse grazing management strategies (continuous, set stocking, rotational, strip grazing) on soil health indicators, carbon (C) sequestration, pasture production, animal performance, and cost of production. This includes examining how pregrazing/postgrazing sward heights impacts performance and the environment. We are evaluating different methods for renovating an established pasture and their impact on previously mentioned parameters based on past work indicating diverse responses in soil carbon levels and production based on pasture renovation method. This study includes comparing alfalfa vs. birdsfoot trefoil as the legume anchor for a grass mixture. We are also comparing development of pastures containing typical cool season grasses vs. pastures containing warm season grasses to examine survivability and production of warm season grasses and impacts on performance/environment. After assessing these strategies, we will examine input/output costs along with environmental liabilities/benefits to inform producers about the economics of these strategies from cost of production and carbon credits bases. A diverse research team has been assembled representing scientists and technical staff from 4 departments at the University of Guelph, and industry pasture production and beef cattle specialists. This team will capitalize on diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and approaches that complement each other to work on a problem that in the past would often have been examined on an individual scientific discipline basis. While soil carbon levels (carbon sequestration) are being examined in the study, there are major limitations with this type of data for a 3-year study. There is a need to benchmark soil health and composition information for these pastures, and the goal is to extend the study so that soil C levels will be measured on a long term basis to provide a meaningful assessment of C sequestration.