Trade-offs around the use of biomass for livestock feed and soil cover in dairy farms in the Alaotra lake region of Madagascar

SUMMARYFarmers in the Lake Alaotra region of Madagascar are currently evaluating a range of conservation agriculture (CA) cropping systems. Most of the expected agroecological functions of CA (weed control, erosion control and water retention) are related to the degree of soil cover. Under farmers’ conditions, the grain and biomass productivity of these systems is highly variable and the biomass is used for several purposes. In this study, we measured biomass production of cover crops and crops in farmers’ fields. Further, we derived relationships to predict the soil cover that can be generated for a particular quantity of mulch. We used these relationships to explore the variability of soil cover that can be generated in farmers’ fields, and to estimate how much of the biomass can be removed for use as livestock feed, while retaining sufficient soil cover. Three different kinds of cropping systems were investigated in 91 farmers’ fields. The first two cropping sequences were on the hillsides: (i) maize + pulse (Vigna unguiculata or Dolichos lablab) in year 1, followed by upland rice in year 2; (ii) the second crop sequence included several years of Stylosanthes guianensis followed by upland rice; (iii) the third crop sequence was in lowland paddy fields: Vicia villosa or D. lablab, which was followed by rice within the same year and repeated every year. The biomass available prior to rice sowing varied from 3.6 t ha−1 with S. guianensis to 7.3 t ha−1 with V. villosa. The relationship between the mulch quantity (M) and soil cover (C) was measured using digital imaging and was well described by the following equation: C = 1 − exp(−Am × M), where Am is an area-to-mass ratio with R2 > 0.99 in all cases. The calculated average soil cover varied from 56 to 97% for maize + V. unguiculata and V. villosa, respectively. In order to maintain 90% soil cover at rice sowing, the average amount of biomass of V. villosa that could be removed was at least 3 t ha−1 for three quarters of the fields. This quantity was less for other annual or biennial cropping systems. On average the V. villosa aboveground biomass contained 236 kg N ha−1. The study showed that for the conditions of farmers of Malagasy, the production and conservation of biomass is not always sufficient to fulfil all the above-cited agroecological functions of mulch. Inventory of the soil cover capacity for different types of mulch may help farmers to decide how much biomass they can remove from the field.

Download Full-text

Trade-offs between profit, production, and environmental footprint on pasture-based dairy farms in the Waikato region of New Zealand

Agricultural Systems ◽

10.1016/j.agsy.2015.09.005 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 141 ◽

pp. 14-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Graeme J. Doole ◽

Alvaro J. Romera

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Environmental Footprint ◽

Trade Offs

Download Full-text

Analysing trade-offs between milk, feed and manure production on Dutch dairy farms

European Review of Agricultural Economics ◽

10.1093/erae/jbw025 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Gerlinda S. Samson ◽

Cornelis Gardebroek ◽

Roel A. Jongeneel

Keyword(s):

Dairy Farms ◽

Trade Offs

Download Full-text

Embedding animal welfare in sustainability assessment: an indicator approach

Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research ◽

10.15212/ijafr-2020-0133 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

M. Brennan ◽

T. Hennessy ◽

E. Dillon

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Herd Size ◽

The European Union ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Farm Level ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽

The Impact

In line with growing consumer interest in sustainable food production, a number of farm-level sustainability indicator studies have been published in recent years. Despite the importance of animal welfare, many such frameworks fail to adequately take account of it, mostly due to difficulties in accessing suitable data. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to develop indicators of animal welfare that can be embedded within a wider sustainability framework using a representative farm-level dataset such as the European Union (EU) Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) for Ireland, the Teagasc National Farm Survey. The paper presents a set of sustainability indicators for dairy farms in Ireland for the 2014–2017 period and examines the impact of policy reform on sustainability performance. Headline results show that welfare standards on dairy farms in Ireland have remained stable over the period despite the considerable intensification of the dairy sector following EU milk quota removal. Furthermore, dairy farms that have expanded herd size significantly have improved welfare standards more than farms that have not increased production. An analysis of synergies and trade-offs between the various aspects of sustainability reveals that positive correlations exist between welfare standards and economic and environmental performance. The analysis facilitates the identification of win-win farm-level strategies that can be adopted to improve economic, environmental and animal welfare outcomes. The framework developed here presents opportunities for evaluating policy impacts at the farm level on various aspects of sustainability. The use of the FADN demonstrates the capacity to extend such an approach across the EU.

Download Full-text

Novel players fine-tune plant trade-offs

Essays in Biochemistry ◽

10.1042/bse0580083 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 58 ◽

pp. 83-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Selena Gimenez-Ibanez ◽

Marta Boter ◽

Roberto Solano

Keyword(s):

Ubiquitin Ligase ◽

Feedback Loop ◽

Molecular Level ◽

26S Proteasome ◽

Signalling Molecules ◽

Transcriptional Reprogramming ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Jaz Proteins ◽

Regulatory Feedback Loop ◽

Fine Tune

Jasmonates (JAs) are essential signalling molecules that co-ordinate the plant response to biotic and abiotic challenges, as well as co-ordinating several developmental processes. Huge progress has been made over the last decade in understanding the components and mechanisms that govern JA perception and signalling. The bioactive form of the hormone, (+)-7-iso-jasmonyl-l-isoleucine (JA-Ile), is perceived by the COI1–JAZ co-receptor complex. JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN (JAZ) proteins also act as direct repressors of transcriptional activators such as MYC2. In the emerging picture of JA-Ile perception and signalling, COI1 operates as an E3 ubiquitin ligase that upon binding of JA-Ile targets JAZ repressors for degradation by the 26S proteasome, thereby derepressing transcription factors such as MYC2, which in turn activate JA-Ile-dependent transcriptional reprogramming. It is noteworthy that MYCs and different spliced variants of the JAZ proteins are involved in a negative regulatory feedback loop, which suggests a model that rapidly turns the transcriptional JA-Ile responses on and off and thereby avoids a detrimental overactivation of the pathway. This chapter highlights the most recent advances in our understanding of JA-Ile signalling, focusing on the latest repertoire of new targets of JAZ proteins to control different sets of JA-Ile-mediated responses, novel mechanisms of negative regulation of JA-Ile signalling, and hormonal cross-talk at the molecular level that ultimately determines plant adaptability and survival.

Download Full-text

Dual Goals for Speed and Accuracy on the Same Performance Task

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000063 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 118-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Olive Emil Wetter ◽

Jürgen Wegge ◽

Klaus Jonas ◽

Klaus-Helmut Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Memory Scanning ◽

Performance Task ◽

Performance Tasks ◽

Trade Off ◽

Test Experiment ◽

Trade Offs ◽

New Finding ◽

Sternberg Paradigm ◽

Speed Accuracy ◽

Speed And Accuracy

In most work contexts, several performance goals coexist, and conflicts between them and trade-offs can occur. Our paper is the first to contrast a dual goal for speed and accuracy with a single goal for speed on the same task. The Sternberg paradigm (Experiment 1, n = 57) and the d2 test (Experiment 2, n = 19) were used as performance tasks. Speed measures and errors revealed in both experiments that dual as well as single goals increase performance by enhancing memory scanning. However, the single speed goal triggered a speed-accuracy trade-off, favoring speed over accuracy, whereas this was not the case with the dual goal. In difficult trials, dual goals slowed down scanning processes again so that errors could be prevented. This new finding is particularly relevant for security domains, where both aspects have to be managed simultaneously.

Download Full-text