Abstract
Grazing plays a key role in reducing the external inputs required for ruminant production and in alleviating feed-food competition. Beyond the production of meat and milk, grassland-based systems provide a wide range of ecosystem services. Agroecology and organic farming aim to reconcile natural resource management and food production, in the long term, based on the management of ecological processes. In this perspective paper, we report what we have learned from case studies with beef cattle, sheep, and dairy cattle across Uruguay and western Europe, in which we have been involved. Multicriteria methods, such as Pareto frontiers and positive deviances, were used to analyze trade-offs and identify win-wins from farm surveys. Long-term farm networks coupled with bioeconomic optimization models revealed fluctuations in farm income and allowed estimating system resilience. Extensive farmlet experiments made it possible to integrate knowledge on animal physiology and grassland ecology in the system redesign process and to test for innovative and risky management options that could lead to unacceptable learning costs in commercial farms. Finally, learning from farmers' local knowledge in teams with researchers and technical advisers can provide positive changes in grazing systems. In Uruguayan family farms, for example, the scientific knowledge gained from farmlet experiments led to advice on management options based on farm-specific diagnosis. Farmers adapted the proposals, with researchers supporting the processes by providing quantitative information on consequences and spaces for reflection. In a French cheese production area, the focus was on farmers' own experience. Games facilitated interactions as participants could challenge each other's reasoning and conclusions in a safe environment. These two case studies illustrate the diversity of co-innovation approaches, but in both cases knowledge sharing between researchers, farmers, and other stakeholders appeared more efficient to help farmers understand and adapt their own system properties than researching best practice solutions for large-scale transfer.
Highlights
As a result of the increasing consumption of meat and milk, livestock farming systems face unprecedented pressure to alleviate their negative impacts on the environment
Long-term farmlet experiments allowed us to integrate scientific knowledge on animal physiology and plant–herbivore interactions in the redesign process and to test for innovative and risky management options that would have led to unacceptable learning costs if tested on commercial farms
A first illustration came from the herbage allowance manipulation experiments in Uruguayan Campos
Summary
As a result of the increasing consumption of meat and milk, livestock farming systems face unprecedented pressure to alleviate their negative impacts on the environment. Engaging with farmers and other local stakeholders to generate “actionable knowledge,” that is, “knowledge that supports stakeholder decision making and consequent actions” (Geertsema et al, 2016), allows for the fostering of agroecological innovations This implies integrating farmers’ practices, perceptions, and values (Kosgey et al, 2006; Coquil et al, 2018), accounting for the singularities of the local production system to be transformed, e.g., edaphic and climatic conditions, new demands for products and markets (Oosting et al, 2014), and disseminating knowledge among local communities and regional stakeholders (Albicette et al, 2017). Farmers raise animals for meat, and finishing takes place on-farm at pasture These case studies of grazing system transition to agroecological or organic systems reveal three complementary research approaches. An original approach for capturing innovations occurring in commercial farms comes from the “positive deviants” approach (Sternin and Choo, 2000), where farmers identify peers with outstanding economic and environmental performance
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