Student of FES, Teowdroes Kassahun Teka, won 3rd place in the competition for the best presentation at ELLS Scientific Student Conference which was held on November 11th and 12th 2016 at University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. Congratulations!
Title of presentation: Seasonal dynamic of herbage biomass under longterm intensive and extensive grazing management
Abstract:
The main role of grassland is to provide sufficient feed for livestock, and there has been huge push to understand and quantify available biomass from different management strategies that can meet livestock demand and landscape management. A fourteen year (2002–2015) study was conducted on upland grassland maintained under long-term experiment in the Jizerské hory (Oldrichov v Hájích village), Czech Republic. The study analysed the effect of intensive (IG) and extensive (EG) grazing on the dynamic of biomass production in the course of the grazing season. The sward height was maintained under 5 and 10 cm for IG and EG treatments respectively. Total biomass production in the grazing season was found to be higher under IG than EG and varied
between (2.4 to 5 tDM ha-1 year-1) under IG and (2.3 to 4.7 tDM ha-1 year-1) under EG. Double peak (spring and summer) curves of biomass growth during the growing season was found nine times in the fourteen-year experiment which sets it apart from what is commonly found as a single peak curve in the spring in Czech uplands. Sward height was found to be a significant predictor of herbage biomass with strong relationship between sward height and herbage biomass under IG (R2 =0.933) and (R2= 0.748) in EG. Considering the number of herbivores in Czech Republic it is clear that EG is a better landscape management that can fulfil livestock needs and mitigate temporary or permanent abandonment of grasslands.
Keywords:
Grassland, biomass yield, exclosure-cages
Acknowledgements:
Vilém Pavlů, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
Michal Hejcman, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
