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

总体目标是审查牧场管理/改造战略如何影响可持续的牛肉生产，利用牧场解决牛肉生产者对生产/生产成本的关切，并解决与牛肉生产有关的环境关切。我们正在评估不同放牧管理策略(连续放牧、集中放牧、轮流放牧、带状放牧)对土壤健康指标、碳(C)固存、牧场生产、动物性能和生产成本的影响。这包括检查放牧前/放牧后草皮高度对性能和环境的影响。我们正在根据过去的工作评估不同的牧场更新方法及其对前面提到的参数的影响，这些工作表明基于牧场更新方法的土壤碳水平和产量的不同反应。这项研究包括比较紫花苜蓿和鸟脚三叶草作为豆科植物混合物锚的作用。我们还比较了含有典型冷季型牧草的牧场和含有暖季型牧草的牧场的发展，以检验暖季型牧草的生存能力和产量以及对性能/环境的影响。在评估这些战略之后，我们将审查投入/产出成本以及环境责任/收益，以从生产成本和碳信用基础向生产者通报这些战略的经济性。来自圭尔夫大学4个系的科学家和技术人员，以及工业草场生产和肉牛专家组成了一个多元化的研究团队。这个团队将利用不同的背景、技能集和相互补充的方法来解决一个问题，而在过去，这些问题通常是在单个科学学科的基础上进行审查的。虽然土壤碳水平(碳封存)正在研究中，但对于为期3年的研究来说，这类数据有很大的局限性。有必要为这些牧场的土壤健康和组成信息制定基准，目标是扩大研究范围，以便长期测量土壤碳水平，以提供有意义的碳固存评估。

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.