Track 2‐6‐1: Developing Intensive and Extensive Forage Production with Environment Friendly Technologies and Adoption of Mechanization
Description
Brachiaria species play a strategic role in ruminant production systems in Brazil, covering an estimated pasture area of approximately 90 million hectares (Karia et al., 2006), however, these pastures are subject to different degrees of degradation due to inadequate management. In pasture management, field measurements such as canopy height, for example, are used by managers as a tool to establish parameters for the optimal point to cut the forage and for the post-grazing residue, in order to maximize production by harvesting at maximum of herbage mass accumulation, and to avoid problems associated to overgrazing, by setting ideal post-grazing height for forage regrowth. The use of the variables light interception (LI) and leaf area index (LAI) has been recommended as a tool for pasture management, based on the theory that, when the canopy reaches a light interception of 95%, the forage is near its maximum growth rate, which is called critical LAI (Brougham, 1956). The residual LAI refers to the leaf area of the post-grazed stubble. Residual LAI is used to establish the minimum leaf area necessary to ensure an efficient pasture regrowth (Lemos et al., 2014). Light interception and the LAI are difficult to measure at the farm level, due to the high cost of the equipment and technical feasibility of the process. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between LI and LAI measured by two different equipment, with canopy height and soil cover in three species of Brachiaria.
Included in
Relationship between Field Measurements in Three Brachiaria Species with Leaf Area Index and Light Interception by Indirect Methods
Brachiaria species play a strategic role in ruminant production systems in Brazil, covering an estimated pasture area of approximately 90 million hectares (Karia et al., 2006), however, these pastures are subject to different degrees of degradation due to inadequate management. In pasture management, field measurements such as canopy height, for example, are used by managers as a tool to establish parameters for the optimal point to cut the forage and for the post-grazing residue, in order to maximize production by harvesting at maximum of herbage mass accumulation, and to avoid problems associated to overgrazing, by setting ideal post-grazing height for forage regrowth. The use of the variables light interception (LI) and leaf area index (LAI) has been recommended as a tool for pasture management, based on the theory that, when the canopy reaches a light interception of 95%, the forage is near its maximum growth rate, which is called critical LAI (Brougham, 1956). The residual LAI refers to the leaf area of the post-grazed stubble. Residual LAI is used to establish the minimum leaf area necessary to ensure an efficient pasture regrowth (Lemos et al., 2014). Light interception and the LAI are difficult to measure at the farm level, due to the high cost of the equipment and technical feasibility of the process. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between LI and LAI measured by two different equipment, with canopy height and soil cover in three species of Brachiaria.
