Influence of shading on forage development in a crop-livestock-forest integration system

Abstract

The Crop-Livestock-Forest Integration (ICLF) is a sustainable production strategy, where there is the cultivation of agricultural, forest and/or livestock species in the same area, generating synergy between the components. Brazil has several factors that benefit the implementation of integrated systems, such as favorable edaphoclimatic conditions, available area, and profile for agricultural production. Among the species most used as an arboreal component in the ICLF, eucalyptus stands out for its rapid growth, good adaptation to soil and climate conditions in Brazil, good market value, low cost of implementation and ease of acquisition of seedlings. The agricultural component represents a form of diversification of the area production in the form of grains and / or silage, in addition to providing the recovery and / or conservation of the soil, since the area should be mechanically and chemically prepared for the implantation of crops, in addition to contributing to the supply of organic matter to the soil and enable the implementation of forage through the no-tillage system. The forages of the genus Brachiaria syn. Urochloa are adapted to most soils of the Cerrado biome, presenting good dry mass production and nutritional value, ease of seed acquisition, and resistance to grazing leafhoppers, already being used by most rural producers. However, one of the great challenges of the ICLF is to maintain the productivity of the pasture over the years after planting with the advance of the age of the trees and consequently increase in the level of shading. The level of shading caused by the trees, which is related to the quantity and quality of light that arrives in the understory and can impact the productivity of the forage grown in the understory. Therefore, the objective is to describe the forage development of Urochloa brizantha cultivar Marandu in ICLF systems and its changes in different proposed models.