Sustainable intensification of livestock production in Santa Catarina, Brazil

Name of sustainable practice or practices Sustainable intensification of livestock production in Santa Catarina, Brazil

Name of main actor Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

Type of actors involved Smallholder livestock keepers, Commercial farmers, Research institutions

Livestock Species Cattle

Country Brazil

Agro-ecological region Temperate

Main feature of best practice Improving environmental sustainability including biodiversity conservation, Contributing to better animal health and welfare, Furthering grain-free strategies in animal feed

Key features of livestock farming system Commercial pastoral livestock keeping

Year practice/management strategies started to be implemented 2008

Key practices implemented to improve sustainability of livestock management PISA (Produção Integrada de Sistemas Agropecuários) is a public-private initiative lead by MAPA (Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture). Farmers apply voluntary to the program, and the Universities are responsible for proposed pivotal technologies. PISA is a sustainable intensification production model oriented to increase food production at farm and landscape level based on sustainable pillars as conservation agriculture, animal welfare, integrated crop-livestock systems, diversity, traceability and certification of farm products and other good farming practices. The Program is funded by a public-private partnership, and technologies are applied at farm level advised by private consultants from participating Universities. In Southern Brazil it concerns mainly small dairy farmers where at present time about 600 small stakeholders from 30 municipalities are involved. Small-scale dairy operations predominate as the main farming strategies in the region. Many farms grow soybeans, maize, eucalyptus, tobacco, yerba mate, forage crops, including making silage and hay. Following livestock species are usually raised: beef and dairy cattle, pigs, poultry and sheep. Dairy cows are fed on maize silage + concentrate (60-70% of the diet) and annual temperate (mainly Lolium multiflorum and Avena strigosa) or tropical pastures (mainly Sorghum bicolor, Pennisetum glaucum, and Cynodon species) which constitute 30-40% of the diet. Farmers milk on average 14 lactating cows, for a total daily milk production of about 150 litres. Farmers used to till soil two to three times per year and no soil conservation measures were performed. Soil organic matter was frequently below 2 g/kg of soil. PISA strategies include introducing no-till and other conservation measures. Pastures on participating farms are generally managed in rotational stocking. Grazing management is modified in order to improve animal nutrient consumption per unit time. Knowledge on ingestion behaviour serves as basis for the adopted changes: pasture target feeding times become as a result oriented on facilitation of forage apprehension per unit time. Pre-grazing and post-grazing pasture heights are defined so that livestock have permanently the opportunity to ingest forage at the highest intake rates (bite optimization), boosting the few hours during which animals are grazing. Milking hours (twice a day) are proposed to be changed according to the natural ruminant diurnal grazing pattern (early morning and late afternoon).

Key impacts of the best practices on sustainability of farming system The PISA program has shown that it can enhance livelihood diversification offering resilience to economic stresses, and reducing risks that family farmers might face in a constant shifting environment. It also enhances provision of ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, biological diversity, natural resources conservation) that support adaptation and mitigation of climate change. PISA is bringing new perspectives for the rural poor. New generation becomes confident and proud of their parents activities, so they want to stay on the farm and not move to cities. Adjusting milking hours to the natural cycle of rumination has shown to have positive effects on animal health. Cows are less susceptible to acidosis, reflecting an increase in animal health and reproduction parameters (e.g. number of semen doses/pregnancy drops from 3.5 to 1.5). This intervention, in addition to prophylactic measures on milking process, drops milk bacteria content from ~650,000 to 200,000 in three years. Due to no-till and rotational grazing soil carbon sequestration is hugely enhanced because of no disturbance of soil. Lactating cows grazing on the upper part of the plants increase the contribution of pasture in the total diet, decreasing silage and concentrate consumption by almost half. Farmers quickly appreciated the proposed interventions, because they result in less labour (less silage and concentrates in feed), and enhanced life quality (first milking usually at 5:30 a.m. changed to 7:30 a.m.). On average, milk yield per cow increased by 30%, reducing feeding costs by 20% at the end of the first year of the PISA program. The amount of milk produced per unit feeding concentrate increased from 1.9 to 4.2 kg milk/kg concentrate. The number of lactating cows in the first year expanded from 14 to 19. Consequently, annual milk yield increased from 4800 to 11250 kg/ha. There are few farmers with more than 3 years in PISA program, but those reached more than 17000 kg/ha milk yield. PISA was successful in increasing production efficiency and reducing external inputs dependency. Concentrates, fertilizers and pesticides were minimized per unit animal product, with estimated benefits on environmental sustainability (greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient leaching, toxicity, etc). Soil health is recovered and is pivotal to environment conservancy. Diversity is increased with increasing crop options on rotations. Farms on PISA were observed to have more resilience against drought. Animal health and welfare are promoted by respecting animal natural behaviour.

Constraints and opportunities observed during implementation of described practices PISA program in Santa Catarina, for example, includes participation of 12 farmers. Certain unsustainable practices that used to be adopted by the farmers prior to the implementation of the PISA/Santa Catarina were related to no soil conservation measures, the misuse of fertilizers and pesticides, inefficient management of feeding paddocks, consequently generating overgrazing, inappropriate use of the farming area and consequent low overall animal production, soil compaction and its degradation diminishing environmental quality. Minimal soil disturbance, organic soil cover, crop rotations (according to species seasonality) and planting supporting crops were some of the engagements that were undertaken on PISA/Santa Catarina contributed to improving environmental sustainability. Forage and feed resources supplied to cattle are locally produced which are nutritionally balanced and safe (forage grasses and legumes, silage and hay) hence guarantying animal health and welfare. Milk production implemented under improved pastures derived from Conservation Agriculture based crop-pasture rotations improved production of milk per unit of pasture. The foremost key of best management practices used in the PISA program is related to the shared decision making strategy that is promoting social participation of farmers on the development and implementation of farm activities. Local governance is also fundamental to the participatory approach. First steps must gain farmers confidence, leaving more structural changes for the second to forth years. The next phases should incorporate the spread of the PISA principles and practices to reach higher number of smallholders with focus on vulnerable groups. The program should also reach other farm typologies.

Contacts
Paulo César de Faccio Carvalho (Email: paulocfc(at)ufrgs.br) Website: www.siabrasil.com.br