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

总体目标是研究牧场管理/改造战略如何影响可持续牛肉生产，利用牧场解决牛肉生产者的生产/生产成本问题，并解决牛肉生产的环境问题。 我们正在评估不同的放牧管理策略（连续，设置放养，轮牧，带状放牧）对土壤健康指标，碳（C）固存，牧草生产，动物性能和生产成本的影响。这包括研究放牧前/放牧后草地高度如何影响性能和环境。 我们正在评估不同的方法来修复一个既定的牧场和他们对先前提到的参数的影响，根据过去的工作表明不同的反应，在土壤碳水平和生产的基础上牧场修复方法。 这项研究包括比较苜蓿与鸟脚三叶草作为豆科锚草混合物。 我们还比较了含有典型冷季型草的牧场与含有暖季型草的牧场的发展，以检查暖季型草的生存能力和产量以及对性能/环境的影响。 评估这些策略后，我们将沿着审查投入/产出成本以及环境负债/效益，以从生产成本和碳信用额基础向生产者提供有关这些策略的经济性的信息。 一个多元化的研究团队已经组成，代表了来自圭尔夫大学4个系的科学家和技术人员，以及工业牧场生产和肉牛专家。 该团队将利用不同的背景，技能和相互补充的方法来解决过去经常在单个科学学科基础上进行检查的问题。虽然研究中正在检查土壤碳水平（碳固存），但对于3年的研究来说，这类数据存在重大局限性。 有必要对这些牧场的土壤健康和成分信息进行基准测试，目标是延长研究，以便长期测量土壤碳水平，以提供有意义的碳封存评估。

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.