Study on peat bog soil pastures for sustainable development of beef cattle farming

Abstract

The paper summarises the results of a study for sustainable development of beef cattle production on peat bog soil pasture in Hungary. On-farm research was carried out for five years to gain some basic data about herbage production from peat bog soil pastures and animal performance resulting from their use by beef cows herds of different genotypes. Monitoring and study was carried out in three farms with both native and seeded grasslands for suckler cows. Each of the herds was composed of Hungarian Simmental (HS), Hereford (HE) and HS×HE crossbred cows (F1 and R1 generations). Herds were kept outdoors all year round and cows mated in summer, the calves being weaned in autumn. Significant differences were observed in reproduction and weaning performances between HS and HE cows. Calving rate was 79.3% and 82.6%, survival rate to weaning 97.6% and 91.3%, and 205-days weaning weight 193.2kg and 173.6kg respectively. There were significant heterosis effects in the case of crossbred cows (F1, R1) in both calving rate (+9.7% and +5.7% respectively), and the survival rate of F1, R1 and R2 calves (+6.3%, +3.5%, +0.7% respectively). Annual herbage production differed significantly between years, farms and pasture types. The range in variation was from 2.82 to 3.42 tonnes/ha for dry matter, from 27.8 to 34.4 thousand MJ/ha for metabolisable energy and from 3.85 to 6.15 kg/ha for crude protein. Calculated from the average dry matter annual production yield and cows requirements, the annual carrying capacity of the pastures studied ranged from 55 cows/100ha for the large size HS to 66 cows/100ha for the smaller size HE. The highest calf crop (50.7 weaned calves and 9.6 tonnes total weaning weight) was obtained in the case of F1 cow herds while the lowest (42.6 and 8.23 respectively) in the case of HS. Herbage and hair samples analyses for macro- and micro-elements showed that Na, Cu, Zn and Se supplied by the herbage are insufficient with respect to cows needs. A mineral supplementation could be beneficial in order to sustain health and reproduction.