Let's talk about the pastures of the warm and temperate zones.
(Edited)
The climate is a very important factor when establishing a pasture crop because it directly affects the growth of the pastures, in temperate climates due to its temperature precipitation and daylight hours the growth of the pastures is affected being a little slower than in warm climates due to their conditions in temperate climates I have observed a slower growth in the pastures taking up to 45 days to reach the optimal point for animal consumption instead in warm climates between 25 and 30 to be consumed by animals.
In this sense, Chaverra and Gutiérrez (2005), indicate that any livestock operation to be profitable must obtain most of the energy for milk or meat production from pastures. Taking into account that there are more nutritious pastures and with physiological efficiency than others, this is due to the group in which they are found, these being called C3 and C4, the species belonging to these groups grow and develop in different soil-climatic conditions.
The C3 plants according to Intagri (2018). they are the dominant ones on the planet, being 89% of the plant population, C4 plants are an evolutionary result, to avoid these photorespiration and besides being more efficient in the use of water we know of C3 plants from temperate to cold climates, such as Pennisetum clandentinum or kikuyo grass, it is a dominant grass in high altitude livestock farming, with very good nutritional values compared to tropical pastures, in addition to greater digestibility, but with a greater number of rest days, being less efficient in photosynthetic activity.
Also depending on the management it receives, livestock farming at altitude is of smaller scale, compared to livestock farming in the middle to low tropics, which is of larger dimensions and number of animals, coupled with this the climates of high temperatures and less nutritious pastures, a factor in favor would be a higher growth rate, being C4 they are of greater photosynthetic activity, this shortens the days of rest of these pastures, being more active in photosynthetic activity they make greater use of CO2 which makes them inhibit photorespiration, this in future views makes them more ecological pastures, since they have higher CO2 consumption.
The growth of C4 grasses tends to be rapid, due to abundant photosynthesis, but this is mediated by the reserves that it has in its sink organ (root), after a harvest or grazing the pasture reserves are reflected, these in poorly managed or continuous pastures will be depleted, and the pasture will need greater numbers of rest days to be grazed or harvested again, in a continuity there will be eroded (savaged) pastures with little available biomass. Dávila, (2005) mentions that frequent cutting or grazing that does not allow the adequate recovery of the grass will lead to a decrease in reserves, this leads to an impossible recovery of the pasture, and this will disappear.
Dear readers, environmental factors, such as temperature, rainfall and brightness, have determining effects on the growth and development of grasses, as the brightness and temperature increases, C4 grasses have greater potential for development thanks to their photosynthetic capacity, while a C3 grass in a temperate zone would be extremely limited due to the oxidative stress it may present, since it does not have enough oxygen thanks to its lower efficiency in capturing carbon dioxide. Each type of grass will develop at an optimal level depending on the climatic conditions in which it is, being able to favor the conditions of the temperate climate to the C3 grass and the conditions of the tropical climate to the C4 grass.
Thank you for reading our article, until a next installment.
| Bibliographic references |
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Cheverra, H., Gutiérrez, J. (2005) The productivity of pastures. In TOA (comp) Establishment and management of pastures and forages. Issue 134, seventh edition. (9-10) Bogota, Colombia. INTAGRI. 2018. Plants C3, C4 and CAM. Vegetable nutrition series. No. 125. INTAGRI technical articles. Mexico, p., 5. In PDF.
Davila, S. Vicente. (2005) Principle for good grassland management. In TOA (comp) Establishment and management of pastures and forages. Issue 134, seventh edition. (13-14) Bogota, Colombia.
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