From diversity to strategy: Livestock research for effective policy in a climate change world

European livestock agriculture is extraordinarily diverse, and so are the challenges it faces. This diversity has contributed to the development of a fragmented set of research communities. As a result, livestock research is often under-represented at policy level, despite its high relevance for the environment and food security. Understanding livestock systems and how they can sustainably adapt to global change requires inputs across research areas, including grasslands, nutrition, health, welfare and ecology. It also requires experimental researchers, modellers and stakeholders to work closely together. Networks and capacity building structures are vital to enable livestock research to meet the challenges of climate change. They need to maintain shared resources and provide non-competitive arenas to share and synthesize results for policy support.  Long term strategic investment is needed to support such structures. Their leadership requires very different skills to those effective in scientific project coordination.

LiveM Highlights and outlook

Improving health and welfare is an important adaptation and mitigation strategyDeveloping process based modelling, responsive to adaptationLinks to climate and land use change modelling are essential Livestock systems likely to be hit hardest by climate changeNeed to develop animal health models that respond to adaptation by farmersBringing together direct and indirect impacts of climate change vitalAdaptation and mitigation need to be considered and modelled togetherLinking models across scales is important to support policy decisionsLearning between sectors carries potential for novel solutions and methodological advancesEffective communication of outcomes to stakeholders (how?

Klimaatslimme melkveehouderij : een routekaart voor implementatie van mitigatie- en adaptatiemaatregelen

The aim of this study was to describe the challenges faced by the Dutch dairy sector in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and to show possible pathways for implementation of mitigation and adaptation options towards 2030 and 2050. With regard to mitigation, the dairy sector has to comply with targets for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in sectoral, national and European legislation. With regard to adaptation, dairy farms are expected to benefit from increasing temperatures and CO2 concentrations, but this may be counteracted by increases in extreme weather events and animal and plant diseases and plagues. A roadmap is shown with phased implementation of mitigation- and adaptation options, based on their effectiveness, costs, readiness for practical implementation, and interaction with other aspects of sustainability

Modelling responses of forages to climate change with a focus on nutritive value

European livestock agriculture is extraordinarily diverse, and so are the challenges it faces. This diversity has contributed to the development of a fragmented set of research communities. As a result, livestock research is often under-represented at policy level, despite its high relevance for the environment and food security.Understanding livestock systems and how they can sustainably adapt to global change requires inputs across research areas, including grasslands, nutrition, health, welfare and ecology. It also requires experimental researchers, modellers and stakeholders to work closely together.Networks and capacity building structures are vital to enable livestock research to meet the challenges of climate change. They need to maintain shared resources and provide non-competitive arenas to share and synthesize results for policy support.  Long term strategic investment is needed to support such structures. Their leadership requires very different skills to those effective in scientific project coordination

Challenges and research gaps in the area of integrated climate change risk assessment for European agriculture and food security

Priorities in addressing research gaps and challenges should follow the order of im­por­tance, which in itself would be a matter of defining goals and metrics of importance, e.g. the extent, impact and likelihood of occurrence. For improving assessments of cli­mate change impacts on agriculture for achieving food security and other sustainable develop­ment goals across the European continent, the most important research gaps and challen­ges appear to be the agreement on goals with a wide range of stakeholders from policy, science, producers and society, better reflection of political and societal prefer­ences in the modelling process, and the reflection of economic decisions in farm manage­ment within models. These and other challenges could be approached in phase 3 of MACSUR

Modelling climate change adaptation in European agriculture: Definitions and Current Modelling

Confidential content, in preparation for a peer-reviewed publication

From diversity to strategy: Livestock research for effective policy in a climate change world

European livestock agriculture is extraordinarily diverse, and so are the challenges it faces. This diversity has contributed to the development of a fragmented set of research communities. As a result, livestock research is often under-represented at policy level, despite its high relevance for the environment and food security. Understanding livestock systems and how they can sustainably adapt to global change requires inputs across research areas, including grasslands, nutrition, health, welfare and ecology. It also requires experimental researchers, modellers and stakeholders to work closely together. Networks and capacity building structures are vital to enable livestock research to meet the challenges of climate change. They need to maintain shared resources and provide non-competitive arenas to share and synthesize results for policy support. Long term strategic investment is needed to support such structures. Their leadership requires very different skills to those effective in scientific project coordination

De enkelvoudige versus de gecombineerde indicator voor bepaling van de fosfaattoestand van de bodem : toetsing op data van veeljarige veldproeven op grasland en bouwland

In the Netherlands, the application of phosphorus (P) from fertilising products is regulated through application rate limits targeting equilibrium fertilisation and a neutral P status of the soil meaning that a higher P application rate limit is assigned to soils with a low P status and vice versa. Until 2021, the soil P status was derived based on one single soil P indicator namely P-AL-value for grassland and Pw-value for arable land. From 2021 onwards, the soil P status will be derived from the combination of P-AL-value(indicator for the P capacity) and P-CaCl2 –value (indicator for P intensity) enabling to differentiate based on the P buffering capacity of the soil. Data from long term field trials supply valuable data on trends in soil P indicators in relation to crop uptake and P application rate. This report assesses trends in the single P indicator (Pw-value or P-AL-value) and combined indicator (P-AL-value and P-CaCl2-value) in relation to P fertilisation rate and P uptake rate using data from long term field experiments on grassland and arable land