As technology advances in agriculture and competitiveness with other crops increases, the challenge for livestock farmers to be as efficient as possible when transforming each clump of grass into meat grows. It was with this situation in mind that the SIPA Alliance, formed by the Research Group on Integrated Agricultural Production System at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul; by the Center for Innovation in Agricultural Technology at the Federal University of Paraná; and by the Research and Innovation Group on Pure and Integrated Agricultural Production Systems at the Federal University of Rondonópolis-MT launched a new concept of beef cattle production system – meat farming.
At Giro do Boi this Wednesday, the 24th, agronomist Edicarlos Damacena de Souza, master in production systems and doctor in soil science, professor at the Federal University of Rondonópolis, one of the authors of this new concept, spoke about the innovative proposal and revealed the first results of its practical application.
“The idea of the alliance is to be able to spread this production system more widely, to make the research generated at the university reach rural producers faster. […] This concept (meat farming) emerged some time ago. Davi Teixeira, who is director of SIA, and is part of the SIPA Alliance, saw the need to have a greater impact on producers with a name that could add a concept of technology, which could leverage livestock farming, leaving current levels ( of productivity) and was raised to different levels of production with planning, with better positioning of inputs. From then on, we began to evolve this concept with applied research, taking it to properties so that farmers or ranchers could have these technologies and apply them in a way that generated more income within the property. It is a concept that must be around ten years old, it is beginning to be studied at property levels and today we have managed to make this concept reach a very large number of properties. We are talking about more than 1,800 properties in Brazil”, he contextualized.
According to the agronomist, the advancement of enjoyment of livestock farming is progressing more slowly than in agriculture due to a certain margin that the beef cattle producer has to make mistakes. “In livestock farming, even if it is managed and conducted below what is possible, it is difficult for a livestock farmer to go broke. You can see that when he goes bankrupt, he rarely still has cattle, he has land, because livestock farming is a much lower risk activity. However, the production levels of our Brazilian livestock are also below what they can actually reach. […] We have a gigantic horizon to grow our livestock farming and make it increasingly profitable”, he estimated.
FARM IN PARANÁ HAD A RETURN OF R$66.00 FOR EACH REAL INVESTED IN MEAT FARMING
Among the successful cases of applying the concept is Fazenda Horizonte, in Diamante do Sul, in the center-west of Paraná. The 280-hectare breeding property reduced its breeding season from five to three months, increased the herd from 286 to 428 sows in the same area, increased weaning rate from 61% to 93% and average weaning weight increased from six to seven arrobas for each calf on average. The secret? Optimize the management of pastures formed with Marandu and cattle supplementation – a low investment with surprising returns.
“What is important is that you will not necessarily invest financial resources in technology. When a technician applies the concept of meat farming, he will always start by arranging the pieces on the board so that he has the minimum amount of resources invested initially. We often think about adopting technology in livestock farming, confinement, supplementation, but we have a base that has to be done well. Grazing management has a huge impact on the results of the system, just by managing grazing better, you don’t need to invest in anything else. Planning, structuring the herd requires no investment. These are technologies that do not require investment. That was the case at Fazenda Horizonte,” he said.
The changes made to the farm’s basic items generated a true chain reaction that increased results until obtaining revenue of R$1,053 per hectare, a return of R$66 for each real invested in the new production system.
“If I have a cow that is being fed better, is eating better quality pasture, she will reflect that in her milk. If she gives more milk, the calf will have more food, which will be useful especially in the early stages, when it is not consuming forage. And this calf begins to gain more weight than if the mother were a cow that gave less milk. So managing the system happens gradually, investing in technologies that you spend time on, not money. You do it in small parts of the farm, investing resources, such as soil correction, fertilization, more effective control of weeds so that the producer can have this leap in productivity”, he illustrated. “A pilot area is set up so that the producer can learn how to manage this differently, apply the concept of meat farming and then he will expand, he will feel comfortable expanding this on his property”, he added.
The agronomist also clarified how supplementation, an input that is already more expensive in proportion to livestock costs, enters the meat farming system. “Does strategic supplementation occur in meat farming? Yes, but I can’t spend a lot on supplements. It has to be strategic. It is important and here in the Cerrado it is essential, but it needs to be positioned at the correct time, in the correct quantity because the supplement is more expensive. […] I invested in technologies that did not waste money, I invested resources in technologies that provided answers and reduced costs with others that spend a lot, such as supplementation. Sometimes I don’t need to supplement with 1% of body weight. If I have good pasture, I can reduce this to 0.5% or 0.3% of live weight. If we have a completely degraded pasture, what is my solution? Additional? But pasture is the cheapest food. So I have to manage this pasture well because it will make me money”, he maintained.
IN MATO GROSSO, MEAT FARMING YIELD 15.6 ARR PER HECTARE IN SAFRINHA
Another practical example of the application of meat farming occurred at Fazenda Guarita, in Rondonópolis-MT (photo highlighted above on this page). In 132 days of grazing during the off-season, the property achieved an average productivity in arrobas per hectare (15.6 @/ha) that was more than three times higher than the off-season average in the state (5 @/ha) and almost three times half higher than the Brazilian average (4.5 @/ha).
On the property, one of the main changes was the repositioning of soybean fertilization so that fertilization also served for pasture. “The soybean fertilization is done and, generally, the pasture is left to nature – the pasture that is made up of the residual soybean fertilization. But when I harvest soybeans, I am taking away 100 kg of potassium, around 60 to 70 kg of phosphorus. Then I add the pasture and don’t fertilize anything. When I remove 15 arrobas of carcasses per hectare, I am taking away 11 kg of nitrogen, 3 kg of phosphorus and 600 grams of potassium. Then I go back and add 90 potassium? Then we realized that we had a system in which fertilization could be applied to the pasture instead of putting it on soybeans and causing pasture production to increase. By managing this pasture well, I would achieve a higher stocking rate and, as a consequence, more animals per hectare consuming quality pasture with greater weight gain. And this is what happened. We associated the concepts of meat farming with the integrated system and today we have this result, which did not occur just during one year. It happened last year, the year before last and now also entering the pasture phase again, it will happen again in 2021 because these are solid concepts that we have applied”, he projected.
Taking advantage of the increase in enjoyment at Fazenda Guarita, Edicarlos asked: “Can we achieve this in soybeans, going from 60 to 200 bags per hectare? Can not! But in livestock farming, we can do it”, he said.
In his interview, the professor at the Federal University of Rondonópolis commented on the six concepts of the meat farming system.
1 – “Farm Design”: intelligent planning of land use in space and time, designing strategies for high and uninterrupted nutrient intake by animals Same as for soil cover;
2 – Organized herd structure, in order to optimize the animal stock;
3 – Structured and qualified work team;
4 – Improving soil fertility, in line with the property’s goals and cash flow;
5 – Control of pests and diseases, favoring biological forms of combat;
6 – Grazing management, in order to favor the consumption of leaf blades, qualifying the meat and mitigating methane emissions.
ROTATIONAL GRAZING?
Within the last pillar, grazing management, Edicarlos recalled that the concept of “rotational grazing” is one of the bases. The doctor in soil science explained what the novelty is about.
“Rotational grazing is a new methodology – we are talking about less than ten years of creation – of pasture management that does not take into account the pasture itself, but the ingestive behavior of the animal. It’s as if we asked the animal what it wants to eat. What will the cattle eat that will give you the greatest return as a livestock farmer?”, he summarized.
“So in this management we evaluate the animal’s behavior to define pasture management strategies. Sometimes in traditional management I place the animal and the pasture is too high and I let it get too low. It’s as if I arrived and told the ox that he has to eat what I want. And in rotational grazing, through research, we talk, so to speak, with the animals so that they can harvest the best structure from the grass. In other words, when he runs his tongue there and takes a bite, what pasture structure would he like? This is so that with each bite he takes, he consumes as much of the best quality food as possible. And here we are talking about an animal that is on rotational grazing”, he compared
One of the main changes from rotational grazing to traditional methods is that the animal spends less time looking for the best pasture for consumption. “The animal will spend around eight hours grazing to get all the food it needs. That’s why in rotational grazing we will arrive at 7am or 8am and the animal will already be lying down and ruminating. He won’t be looking for food. In conventional grazing, whether rotary or continuous, […] this animal needs up to 15 hours to do so […] and it cannot capture all the food it needs, so it does not express its full potential and we need start supplementing”, he related.
“To give you an idea, at Fazenda Guarita, we started supplementing the animals (in rotational grazing) with 0.3% of their live weight only 89 days after the start of grazing. In other words, of the 132 days of total grazing, in 89 days we did not need to add supplementation and when we did, it was 0.3%. I am reducing costs by supplementing the animal exactly when it needs it”, he revealed.
And when is the right time to start supplementing livestock with precision grazing like that induced by the meat farming system? The agronomist responded. “We started supplementing when the protein content of the pasture dropped below 8%. […] Then we don’t enter with 1.5% or 2% of live weight, as normally happens in integration areas. We used feed that was from semi-confinement, we added 15% salt to control consumption. […] And what do we get from this? Lower investment. So it’s a lot of money that you’ll spend less to produce. In addition to producing much more, you end up spending less to produce because I am supplementing much less”, he explained.
In rotational grazing, supplementation begins only when the protein content of the grass begins to fall
The professor noted that there is still time for farms to implement some of these changes within the gate for this off-season because, in the system, grazing begins shortly after planting the grass. “In our (study) area at Fazenda Guarita, the harvest was very late and we planted the pasture last week. […] To give you an idea, we brought animals into these areas 25 days after sowing the pasture. We don’t let this pasture reach 60, 70 cm. The animals are grazed with the grass measuring an average of 33 cm in height”, he detailed.
The agronomist also pointed out how producers interested in learning about the meat farming system can take their first steps. “This is a concept that can be used at any level of ownership. We have properties of two hectares and 14,000 hectares using the concept. The important thing is to have good planning. So there is no property size restriction. What will change is the breadth of business. And how to implement this? We need, of course, qualified people to do this. You can look for us at Aliança SIPA, we have a website, on our social networks, Instagram and Facebook. Just get in touch and our broadcast team will pass on the information and we will be able to talk and direct you towards this concept. We are available to contribute to livestock farmers with the implementation of this concept and ensure that our livestock farming fulfills its role of producing meat for this world population”, he invited.
Source: Canal Rural/Giro do Boi
