Arboreal/Arbustive Component Associated to Livestock Systems in San Vicente del Caguán Municipality, Caquetá—Colombia

Livestock is the most important economic activity in San Vicente del Caguán municipality, Caquetá department (located in Colombian Amazon region). Indeed, livestock activities have a big responsibility of Colombian Amazon forest deforestation for extensive grazing lands formation, causing soil degradation processes. However, recently some cattle ranchers have changed their thoughts to a sustainable production, applying different ecological strategies. So, application of silvopastoral systems, which is a very important mode of agroforestry, consists that in the same area and time, it can interact in the ecosystem stratums different species among grasses, shrubs, and trees. On this way, the objective of this study is to determine descriptively the arboreal/arbustive component associated to livestock systems, represented according to its uses in San Vicente del Caguán, Colombia. It was made through a direct survey to 13 smallholders in this municipality. As a result, mainly, we found 58 plant species (49 arboreal and nine arbustive, corresponding to 84.48% and 15.52%, respectively). Of these, 20 species had more than one use at a time. In fact, the shade was the use most common with 29 species, corresponding to 34.94% of total species (25 arboreal and just four arbustive, corresponding to 30.12% and 4.82%, respectively). On this way, according to smallholders surveyed, we can conclude that shade provided by trees integration in silvopastoral systems is for diminishing heat stress on cattle caused by enduring climate change of tropical, thus contributing to good welfare for animals.

Elaboration and costs multi-nutritional blocs with goatee leaves (<i>Pithecellobium acatlense</i>) consumed by goats in the Mixteca Poblana, Mexico

The elaboration of multinutritional blocs (MB) is an alternative that allows supplement energy, protein, vitamins and minerals, and additionally, it can be administered and take natural resources as protein banks, mainly in the dry season, raising their cost and the concentrates decreasing profitability to producers. An aid is green or dried foliage of the tree-shrub of the Mixteca Poblana that drop their leaves to the ground (dry hay) in the dry season, thus becomes valuable forage consumed by goats, being great for your protein content and low cost in diets of small ruminants in silvopastoral production systems, at the dwindle the foliage of woody perennials in a time of the year. The aim of this study was to develop and meet production costs multinutrient blocks with goatee sheets (Pithecellobium acatlense) consumed by goats in the Mixteca Puebla. The study was done in the community of Tehuaxtla, belonging to the municipality Piaxtla in the Mixteca Poblana, which shows a secondary vegetation (arboreal, shrubby) that is consumed by goats in that region. 8 multinutritional blocks were used with Pithecellobium acatlense into two groups of 30 goats. Chemical analysis threw goatee 11.7% CP during the dry season and 14.8% CP for rains regarding consumption of BM group A showed 20% less compared to Group B, with respect to consumption of the block multinutrient the group A was 56 g/day/goat, whilst the group B has consumed 73 g/day/goat, where he converted ±0.14 g/goat/day for this preparation (MB), with a cost /goat when consuming block/8 days 0.14 USD.

Feed profile analysis of oil palm‐integrated beef cattle farming systems by metabolic energy budgeting and implications for beef production and pastoral system design

Background:Oil palm is a tropical crop with worldwide plantings approaching 20 million ha and large areas in Indonesia,Malaysia and Thailand.The plantations are readily managed as silvopastoral systems incorporating cattle grazing(Oil Palm Silvopastoral System for Cattle,OPSC)but there is a need for analytical tools and data to understand system herbage supply and feed conversion efficiency(FCE).Methods:Metabolic energy budgeting was used to estimate herbage harvested by cattle in three OPSC subsystems,9 and 12 years after oil palm establishment,and FCE of the subsystems was determined.Understorey herbage was also analysed for nutritive value,botanical composition and herbage accumulation within one grazing‐regrowth cycle.Results:The herbage‐harvested estimate was 2.0−2.4 t dry matter(DM)ha^(-1) year^(-1) for 9 year old subsystems and 1.4-1.7 tDMha^(-1) year^(-1) for a 12 year old subsystem.Herbage metabolisable energy(ME)was 8.3−8.5 MJ kg^(-1) DM and crude protein(CP)was 15%-16%DM.FCE values for subsystems ranged from 32 to 94 kg DM kg^(-1) liveweight‐gain.Conclusions:Herbage DM yield is declining,while herbage ME is marginal but CP is adequate.FCE is suboptimal but can be optimised by defining the trajectory of declining herbage production with canopy closure as plantations age and matching stocking rate to herbage supply using a comparativestocking‐rate‐type statistic.