The application of ecologically intensive principles to the systemic redesign of livestock farms on native grasslands: A case of co-innovation in Rocha, Uruguay

CONTEXT: Family-run cow-calf farms based on native grasslands exhibit low economic and social sustainability, as reflected in low family incomes and high workloads. Experimental results have shown that pasture–herd interaction management could improve native grasslands and animal productivity OBJECTIVE: This paper analyzes the extent to which the sustainability of family-run livestock farms based on native grasslands could be enhanced by a systemic redesign informed by ecological intensification practices. The research questions address the initial state of farm sustainability, key bottlenecks to improving farm sustainability, and changes in sustainability criteria achieved over three years of farm redesign. METHODS: The study was executed as part of a multi-level co-innovation project in Uruguay in which a team of scientist-practitioners and seven farm families participated in farm characterization, diagnosis, and redesign. The farm characterization took the form of indicators to describe the farms’ management and bio-physical subsystems. Redesign plans were negotiated between the research team and the farmers. Frequent monitoring and evaluation cycles enabled finetuning across the years of implementation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Improvements were observed in the economic indicators gross margin (+55%), return to labor (+71%), and family income (+53%) and in the social indicator workload ( 22%), and the environmental indicators bird diversity and ecosystem integrity index were maintained or increased slightly. These changes were explained by the uptake of coherent sets of ecological intensification practices causing changes in forage height (+30%), forage allowance (+69%), pregnancy (+22), weight of weaning calf per mating cow (+32%), and presence of tussocks (+65%). Ecological intensification principles resulted in synergistic positive effects between productivity–biodiversity tradeoffs and the scope for enhanced farm resilience and stability. SIGNIFICANCE: Cow-calf family-run farms can be transformed to produce positive environmental and social effects and viable economic results. The implementation of projects in a co-innovation context may be taken as a guide to scaling up and scaling out the ecological intensification of livestock production on native grasslands, contributing to an extension system at the national level with the aim of improving cow-calf systems sustainability.Estación Experimental Agropecuaria BarilocheFil: Ruggia, Andrea. Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Produccion Familiar. Estacion Experimental INIA Las Brujas; UruguayFil: Dogliotti, Santiago. Universidad de la República. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Produccion Vegetal; UruguayFil: Aguerre, Maria Veronica. Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Produccion Familiar. Estacion Experimental INIA Las Brujas; UruguayFil: Albicette, Maria Marta. Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Produccion Familiar. Estacion Experimental INIA Las Brujas; UruguayFil: Blumetto, Oscar. Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Produccion Familiar. Estacion Experimental INIA Las Brujas; UruguayFil: Cardozo, Geronimo. Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Pasturas y Forrajes. Estacion Experimental INIA Treinta y Tres; UruguayFil: Leoni, Carolina. Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Produccion Familiar. Estacion Experimental INIA Las Brujas; UruguayFil: Quintans, Graciela. Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Carne y Lana. Estacion Experimental INIA Treinta y Tres; UruguayFil: Scarlato, Santiago. nstituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA). Programa Nacional de Investigacion en Produccion Familiar. Estacion Experimental INIA Las Brujas; UruguayFil: Tittonell, Pablo Adrian. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Tittonell, Pablo Adrian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Rossing, Walter A.H. Wageningen University and Research. Farming Systems Ecology, Plant Sciences Group; Holand

Do bilateral social security agreements deliver on the portability of pensions and health care benefits? A summary policy paper on four migration corridors between EU and non-EU member states

This policy paper summarizes four corridor studies on bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) between four EU Member and two non-Member States, draws conclusions on their results, and offers recommendations. BSSAs between migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries are seen as the most important instrument to establish portability of social security benefits for internationally mobile workers. Yet only about 23 percent of international migrants profit from BSSAs and their functioning has been little analyzed and even less assessed. The four corridors studied (Austria-Turkey, Germany-Turkey, Belgium-Morocco, and France-Morocco) were selected to allow for comparison of both similarities and differences in experiences. The evaluation of these corridors' BSSAs was undertaken against a methodological framework and three selected criteria: fairness for individuals, fiscal fairness for countries, and bureaucratic effectiveness for countries and migrant workers. The results suggest that the investigated BSSAs work and overall deliver reasonably well on individual fairness. The results on fiscal fairness are clouded by conceptual and empirical gaps. Bureaucratic effectiveness would profit from ICT-based exchanges on both corridors once available

Animal behavior studies as a tool for improving husbandry strategies in Holstein fattening systems.

The present study'ss objective is to characterize behaviour of three different Holstein steers production systems and it implication for husbandry strategies

Social behavior and productive and stress parameters in Holstein steers fattened in three contrasting production systems.

AbstractBeef production with Holstein male calves is becoming more intensive in Uruguay. Some of the new systems with confined animals could improve productivity but also could compromise animal welfare. The aim of this study was to compare animal welfare, stress evidence and productivity of castrated young males reared in three differentproductive systems. The traditional pastoral system (T3) was compared with, a confined fattening system (T1) and an alternative one with confinement and six hours diary access to pastures (T2). The experiment was performed for evaluating the first phase of fattening period (initial mean live weight 93±20.3 kg; and 112±11 days of age). Nodifferences (p = 0.1254) between treatments were detected for live weight gain 0.756±0.829, 0.757±0.676 and 0.730±0.762 kg day-1 for T1, T2 and T3, respectively. There was no evidences of increasing stress or health problems in any production system, according to the obtained serum profile of enzymes and hormones, howeverpermanent confined animals increased agonistic behavior, which could reflect some welfare problems that might increase in the following phases of the fattening process. © Canadian Center of Science and Educatio

Reconstructing the gorte and spiaz de navesele landslides, NE of Lake Garda, Trentino dolomites (Italy)

We applied a multi-method approach to reconstruct the Gorte rock avalanche (85–95 Mm3) located at the northeastern end of Lake Garda. The combination of field mapping, characterization of bedrock discontinuities, Dan3D-Flex runout modeling and dating of boulders with cosmogenic 36 Cl supports the conclusion that the deposits stem from a single rock avalanche at 6.1 ± 0.8 ka. The Gorte event may have triggered the Spiaz de Navesele–Salto della Capra landslide (3.2 Mm3), whose deposits cover the southern end of the Gorte deposits. First-order controls on detachment were the NNE–SSW-and WNW–ESE-oriented fractures in the limestone bedrock, related to the Giudicarie and Schio-Vicenza fault systems, respectively. Dan3D-Flex runout modeling sufficiently reproduced the Gorte rock avalanche, which involved detachment and sliding of a quasi-intact block, likely along marly interbeds, followed by rapid disintegration. The frictional rheology in the source area and the turbulent frictional rheology (Voellmy) in the remaining part best replicate the observed deposit extent and thickness. Heavy precipitation that occurred at that time may have contributed to failure at Gorte. Nonetheless, its timing overlaps with the nearby (<15 km) Dosso Gardene (6630–6290 cal BP) and Marocca Principale (5.3 ± 0.9 ka) landslides, making a seismic trigger plausible

Re-disigned farming systems as a key for biodiversity conservation in Uruguay.

Only 0,6 % of Uruguayan land is under somehow protection such as National Parks or Protected Landscape. In this context wild life and biodiversity conservation in general depends on private areas which major part are under different production systems.