Management Strategies for Sustainable Cattle Production in Southern Pastures

Monte Rouquette Jr., Glen Aiken, Monte Rouquette, Jr.

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780128144749
• eBook ISBN: 9780128144756
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Management Strategies for Sustainable Cattle Production in Southern Pastures is a practical resource for scientists, students, and stakeholders who want to understand the relationships between soil-plant interactions and pasture management strategies, and the resultant performance of cow-calf and stocker cattle. This book illustrates the importance of matching cattle breed types and plant hardiness zones to optimize cattle production from forages and pastures. It explains the biologic and economic implications of grazing management decisions made to improve sustainability of pastures and cattle production while being compliant with present and future environmental concerns and cattle welfare programs. - Documents the effects of cattle grazing on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints - Discusses strategies to enhance soil fertility, soil health, and nutrient cycling in pastures - Provides information on the use of stocking rates, stocking strategies and grazing systems to optimize cow-calf production of weaned calves and stockers. - Presents innovations in cattle supplementation and watering systems to minimize negative impacts on water and soil health - Includes methods for weed control to maintain pasture condition and ecosystem stability - Describes management strategies to integrate cattle operations with wildlife sustainability

Chapter 1

Introduction: Management strategies for sustainable cattle production in Southern Pastures

Monte Rouquette Jr.¹ and Glen E. Aiken², ¹Regents Fellow and Professor of Forage Physiology, Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center – Overton, Overton, TX, United States, ²Center Director, UF-IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center – Quincy, Quincy, FL, United States

Abstract

Sustainable pasture–cattle production systems integrate responsible management, environmental principles and stewardship of property, and economic awareness and viability. Management strategies are uniquely linked with forage production and nutritive value, stocking rates, stocking methods, and opportunities to match forages with animal requirements for production. Southern Pastures includes a core of 13 states with 6 bordering states within the Interstate Corridors of I-10, I-20, I-30, I-40, and I-64. About 59% of the US beef cows are located in these states and most of the calves are shipped to western states for feedlot finishing.

Keywords

Management strategies; sustainable systems; beef cattle; southern states; hardiness zones; forages; pastures; Interstate Corridors

Sustainability of forages and cattle production

Management strategies provide guidance and set expectations and objectives for the overall property–pasture–cattle production goals. Sustainable beef has been defined by the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) [1] to be a product that is socially responsible, environmentally sound, and economically viable. The GRSB also emphasized that beef production should be attentive to natural resources, efficiency and innovation, people and the community, animal health and welfare, and end product to generate income. As pointed out by Rouquette [2], the natural resource principles of the GRSB serve as the primary factors of sustainable pasture–livestock systems. These natural resource principles encourage management to (1) practice environmental stewardship with adaptive management; (2) adopt practices to improve air quality and minimize net greenhouse gas emissions; (3) protect grasslands, native ecosystems, and valuable conservation areas from land conversion and degradation; (4) implement land management practices that conserve and enhance ecosystem health; (5) incorporate efficient management practices to maintain or improve soil health; (6) enhance native plants and animal biological diversity; and (7) implement management practices for sustainable-product feed sources.

Management strategies that integrate the socially responsible management, environmentally sound principles, and economically viable components of sustainability of forage–pasture–cattle production are shown in Fig. 1.1 [2]. Within a specific vegetation zone, pasture ecosystem, management inputs, and stocking strategies are the principal factors that influence sustainability of pastures and livestock production. The level or extent of aggressiveness, intensity, or stocking rate–animal performance goals of the operation are manager or ownership specific. Beef production and the value of product are controlled by biological and economic risk, and the stewardship–property legacy objectives. The economic effect and viability of the pasture–beef system are influenced by production per animal and per unit land area. These aspects of pasture management and cattle production are influenced primarily by stocking rate and secondarily by stocking method. Various stocking strategies will be discussed in the following chapters to implement forage–pasture utilization approaches that seek to optimize animal gains without destruction of the forage resource.

Figure 1.1 Sustainability of pasture–cattle production systems guided by environment, management, and economic considerations. Adapted from F.M. Rouquette, Jr., Management strategies for intensive, sustainable cow-calf production systems in the southeastern United States: Bermudagrass pastures overseeded with cool-season annual grasses and legumes, Prof. Anim. Sci. 33 (2017) 297–309. https://doi.org/10.15232/pas.2016-01591.

Stocking strategies

The assessment and identification of forage and cattle production constraints related to climatic conditions, soil fertility, ecosystem diversity, and persistent-adapted forages set the general boundaries for management inputs and output opportunities. Components of stocking strategies are the primary factors that affect the decisions for management (Fig. 1.2) [3]. The primary factors controlling a viable, sustainable operation involves selecting and utilizing adapted forage species for a specific “zip code” location within a vegetational hardiness zone. Management strategies that have the greatest opportunities to meet personal goals, sustainable production objectives, and economic rewards are based on comparative facts and data for forage production and utilization. Successful managers should be familiar with cause–effect relationships of pasture–animal performance, and the short-term, seasonal, and yearlong climatic conditions related to rainfall and temperature. Thus, within a specific vegetational zone, managers must combine on-site, visual assessment, and management of efficient, sustainable forage use for desired pasture–animal production. Management must be aware of the competitive challenges of climatic conditions and the current and strategic rainfall–temperature related issues. Using appropriate inputs (Fig. 1.2), managers can make decisions and stocking strategies that stimulate forage production, utilization, and nutritive value for desired animal performance. Some of the most valuable factors to consider to optimize system outputs include: (1) an understanding and expectation of forage growth and regrowth; (2) experience with animals and animal husbandry; (3) the ability to assume biological and economic risks associated with stocking outcomes; (4) a constant awareness of vegetation, land, and water resources; (5) an alternative or escape plan for animals and pastures in the event of extreme climatic conditions; and (6) an intuitive application of decisions for inputs and output [3].

Figure 1.2 Inputs and outputs of forage–animal production systems as affected and directed by stocking strategy decisions. Adapted from F.M. Rouquette, Jr., Grazing systems research and impact of stocking strategies on pasture-animal production efficiencies, Crop Sci. 55 (2015) 2513–2530. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2015.01.0062.

Stocking strategies are uniquely linked and integrated with decisions on forage production, grazing pressure, stocking rates, stocking methods, deferment of pastures, and mechanically harvested forages. A stocking strategy is a daily and seasonal approach to forage utilization using stocking rates and stocking methods [3]. Changes in stocking rates and deferment may be made according to various classes, age, and weight of livestock to achieve the primary objectives of optimum forage use for desired optimum or maximum animal performance [3]. Stocking strategies and management decisions used to optimize forage utilization and animal performance lead managers to incorporate the concept of flexible grazing management [4]. Blaser et al. [5] introduced the use of flexible grazing systems by adjusting stocking methods and forage utilization strategies on visual–quantity bases and not a calendar-basis to optimize gain per animal and/or gain per acre.

Plant Hardiness Zones and Southern Pastures

The Southern Pasture areas that are discussed throughout the following chapters are the same states and general locations shown and discussed in Southern Forages [6]. This overall southern region comprises the core states that were part of the original 13 member states of the Southern Pasture and Forage Crop Improvement Association that was founded in 1940 at Tifton, GA [7]. These 13 states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. These states are included in one or more of six of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones (Figs. 1.3 and 1.4) [8]. These Southern Pastures are bounded on the west by Texas and Oklahoma, and include all those states bordering the Gulf of Mexico. This geographical area includes the Atlantic seaboard states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, and the land-locked states of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Management strategies will be presented within the Hardiness Zones and subdivided as follows: (1) Lower South: Interstate 10 Corridor; (2) Middle South: Interstate 20 Corridor; and (3) The Upper South: Interstate 30, Interst...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Introduction: Management strategies for sustainable cattle production in Southern Pastures
• Chapter 2. Cattle grazing effects on the environment: Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint
• Chapter 3. Maintaining soil fertility and health for sustainable pastures
• Chapter 4. Nutrient cycling in grazed pastures
• Chapter 5. Managing grazing in forage–livestock systems
• Chapter 6. Management of forages and pastures in Lower-South: I-10 Corridor
• Chapter 7. Management strategies for pastures and beef cattle in the Middle-South: The I-20 Corridor
• Chapter 8. Management of pastures in the upper south: The I-30 and I-40 Corridors
• Chapter 9. Management strategies for pastures, beef cattle, and marketing of stocker-feeder calves in the Upper South: The I-64 Corridor
• Chapter 10. Pasture-finished beef production in the south
• Chapter 11. Weed control in pastures
• Chapter 12. Management strategies of property and impact on wildlife
• Index