Abstract
Climate models project greater weather variability over the coming decades. High yielding systems that can maintain stable crop yields under variable environmental scenarios are critical to enhance food security. However, the effect of adding a trophic level (i.e. herbivores) on the long-term stability of agricultural systems is not well understood. We used a 16-year dataset from an integrated soybean-beef cattle experiment to measure the impacts of grazing on the stability of key crop, pasture, animal and whole-system outcomes. Treatments consisted of four grazing intensities (10, 20, 30 and 40 cm sward height) on mixed black oat (Avena strigosa) and Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) pastures and an ungrazed control. Stability of both human-digestible protein production and profitability increased at moderate to light grazing intensities, while over-intensification or absence of grazing decreased system stability. Grazing did not affect subsequent soybean yields but reduced the chance of crop failure and financial loss in unfavorable years. At both lighter and heavier grazing intensities, tradeoffs occurred between the stability of herbage production and animal live weight gains. We show that ecological intensification of specialized soybean systems using livestock integration can increase system stability and profitability, but the probability of win-win outcomes depends on management.
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Moderate to light grazing increased stability of human-digestible protein production.
- Taxon
- soybean
Glycine maxt0 - Treatment
- moderate to light grazing intensitiese0
- Outcome
- human-digestible protein productione0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Stability of both human-digestible protein production and profitability increased at moderate to light grazing intensities”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Moderate to light grazing increased profitability stability.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- moderate to light grazing intensitiese0
- Outcome
- profitabilitye0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Stability of both human-digestible protein production and profitability increased at moderate to light grazing intensities”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Over-intensification decreased system stability.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- over-intensificatione0
- Outcome
- system stabilitye0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“over-intensification or absence of grazing decreased system stability”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Absence of grazing decreased system stability.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- absence of grazinge0
- Outcome
- system stabilitye0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“over-intensification or absence of grazing decreased system stability”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Grazing did not affect subsequent soybean yield.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- Grazinge0
- Outcome
- subsequent soybean yieldse0
- Direction
- did not affecte0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Grazing did not affect subsequent soybean yields”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Grazing reduced crop failure risk in unfavorable years.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- Grazinge0
- Outcome
- chance of crop failuree0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Qualifier
- unfavorable yearse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Grazing did not affect subsequent soybean yields but reduced the chance of crop failure and financial loss in unfavorable years.”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Grazing reduced risk of financial loss in unfavorable years.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- Grazinge0
- Outcome
- financial losse0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Qualifier
- unfavorable yearse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Grazing did not affect subsequent soybean yields but reduced the chance of crop failure and financial loss in unfavorable years.”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Light grazing entailed a tradeoff between herbage stability and animal live weight gains.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- lightere0
- Outcome
- tradeoffs occurred between the stability of herbage production and animal live weight gainse0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“At both lighter and heavier grazing intensities, tradeoffs occurred between the stability of herbage production and animal live weight gains.”
t0“soybean”
Claim · model-written summary
Heavy grazing entailed a tradeoff between herbage stability and animal live weight gains.
- Taxon
- soybeanGlycine maxt0
- Treatment
- heavier grazing intensitiese0
- Outcome
- tradeoffs occurred between the stability of herbage production and animal live weight gainse0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“At both lighter and heavier grazing intensities, tradeoffs occurred between the stability of herbage production and animal live weight gains.”
t0“soybean”
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See all 71 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.