Ecofisiologia de sistemas pastoriles : aplicaciones para su sustentabilidad

• Autor(a) principal: Nabinger, Carlos
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Carvalho, Paulo Cesar de Faccio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: spa
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/273500
• topic: Trevo branco; Forragem; Forage allowance; Deferrement; Modeling; Ingestive behavior; Sward structure; Morphogenesis; Oferta de forraje; Diferimiento; Modelaje; Comportamiento ingestivo; Estructura del pasto; Morfogénesis

Only during the last decades a conscience is being formed about the risks of the effects of unlimited exploitation ofthe natural resources and its consequences for the environment and the quality of life on the planet. In the case ofnative pastures, their conservation depends on the added value of other services, which are usually not taken intoconsideration. Preservation and quality of water, soil, and landscape, of cultural and other aspects are not valued;leaving only the profits generated form the sales of animals to the farmer. This profit is low because the managementof the pastures do not allow them to express their productive potential. This is due to a wrong approach of research,which only recently has adopted a more analytical and explicative standpoint toward the processes leading to theproduction of forage and the behaviour of animals on pasture, substituting the traditional productive approach. Theapplication of knowledge generated on morphogenesis of the different plant species, which compose the pasture,and the knowledge on how this morphogenesis affects the structure of the pasture and its consequences for ingestivebehaviour and animal performance on pasture, is the only way to generate recommendations for management,which will lead to increases in production and profit without compromising the ecosystem, adding other values,which maybe one day will be sufficiently known by the farmer. This paper revises aspects of ecophysiology of forage and the ingestive behaviour of the animals, concentrating on native pastures; presents a conceptual model ofthe functioning of pasture; and some applications that have resulted in an increase in animal production and profitsto the farmer, along with improvement of some indicators of sustainability of the ecosystem.