Sustainable intensification of grass-based ruminant production

Overview & Synopsis

The sustainable or ecological intensification of grass-based food production systems provides an opportunity to align the ever increasing global demand for food with the necessity to regreen ruminant production. The challenge for production scientists now is to find innovative ways to improve grass-based production processes to maximize resource use-efficiency based on improved management practices. The objective of this paper is, firstly, to outline the potential opportunities to en han ce the yield and quality of grasslands for grazing and conserved forages paying particular attention to species diversity and legumes. Subsequently, the paper addresses the necessity to choose appropriate animais and management practices to improve productive and reproductive performance within such systems. Finally, the paper reports experimental results from dairy cow and sheep production systems that succeeded in combining high animal performance with low environmental impacts.