Ecological intensification in the campos grasslands through improved grazing management

Abstract

The Río de la Plata grasslands are a biodiversity hotspot that provides provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services of local and global importance. However, these ecosystems are increasingly threatened by land-use change, overgrazing, and climate variability, leading to biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions. Ecological intensification with optimized grazing through forage allowance management (kg DM kg LW⁻¹), offers a promising strategy to balance productivity with environmental sustainability. This study synthesizes evidence from long-term experiments and farm-level assessments in Uruguay and southern Brazil, comparing traditional management (low forage allowance) to improved grazing management by controlling forage allowance with seasonal variations. Experimental results demonstrate that increasing forage allowance improves forage mass, biomass accumulation, animal performance, and pasture resilience, while maintaining plant diversity. Improved management enhances soil carbon stocks and reduces methane yield (g CH₄ kg LWG^-1) and CO₂ emissions per hectare, suggesting greater potential for climate change mitigation. At the farm level, farms were classified into three groups: traditional, improved, and improved with cultivated pastures. Sustainability indicators across production, environmental, and social dimensions were standardized to compare systems. Farms with improved management (≥4.6 kg DM kg LW⁻¹) showed greater output (meat productivity, weaning rate, resistance pregnancy rate), better economic returns (profitability), and lower environmental impacts (CO₂ emissions per ha, ecosystem integrity index) compared to traditional systems. While farms with cultivated pastures had higher meat productivity, they also showed greater input-to-output ratios and environmental trade-offs. Overall, improved grazing, especially without reliance on cultivated pastures, offered the most balanced sustainability outcomes. Improving grazing management in Campos grasslands by adjusting forage allowance is a viable pathway to increase productivity, enhance resilience to climate extremes, and advance sustainable livestock production.