Nutrient Availability and Soil Fertility
If pasture systems are seeded with more than 40% legumes, commercial nitrogen fertilization is unnecessary for adequate plant growth. Legumes are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen, thus providing nitrogen for themselves and surrounding plants. Although grazers remove nutrient sources from the pasture system when they feed on forage sources, the majority of the nutrients consumed by the herd are returned to the pasture system through manure. At a relatively high stocking rate, or high ratio of animals per hectare, manure will be evenly distributed across the pasture system. The nutrient content in these manure sources should be adequate to meet plant requirements, making commercial fertilization unnecessary. Management intensive rotational grazing systems are often associated with increased soil fertility which arises because manure is a rich source of organic matter that increases the health of soil. In addition, these pasture system are less susceptible to erosion because the land base has continuous ground cover throughout the year.
High levels of fertilizers entering waterways are a pertinent environmental concern associated with agricultural systems. However, management intensive rotational grazing systems effectively reduce the amount of nutrients that move off-farm and have the potential to cause environmental degradation. These systems are fertilized with on-farm sources, and are less prone to leaching as compared to commercial fertilizers. Additionally, the system is less prone to excess nutrient fertilization, so the majority of nutrients put into the system by manure sources are utilized for plant growth. Permanent pasture systems also have deeper, well established forage root systems which are more efficient at taking up nutrients from within the soil profile.
Read more about this topic: Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing
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