Barriers and levers of enhancing animal welfare in organic and low-input outdoor production: Insights from a supply chain survey

Animal welfare is an essential part of the sustainability of animal production. While low-input farming, such as organic animal production, is often considered animal-friendly, several ways to enhance animal welfare in low-input animal production exist. However, currently there is little information on how farmers and other supply chain actors view different innovations and tools which may influence animal welfare in low-input outdoor and organic production systems. The aim of this study was to examine farmers’ and experts’ reactions to new approaches to pig and poultry production, with special attention to their animal welfare-related measures. The reactions were tested formally in by using a quantitative survey instrument in nine European countries (Finland, UK, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Romania). In the survey, respondents’ views on production practices and novel measures were asked. These included aspects such as applicability and advantages and disadvantages of various measures such as avoiding mutilations, using dual-purpose or local breeds, or in-ovo sexing. The data included altogether 218 responses from nine countries. Differences between countries were tested and groups of respondents were identified. The results suggest that supply side stakeholders foresee the welfare benefits and some disadvantages of welfare improving measures proposed to them. However, they also indicate that several measures were considered inapplicable despite their benefits. Inadequate financial provisions to adopt a measure was considered as one of the most important reasons for inapplicability of a measure. This may imply either high costs of implementing measures of low market incentives or perceived low demand for animal-friendly products. Other barriers for adopting welfare-friendly measures included farm-specific factors such as limitations imposed by housing. The respondents indicated a high relative preference for feeding, breeding, shelter from predators and the use of vaccines and anti-parasitic treatments to the provision of enrichments and nesting material to pigs, and to mutilations. Farmers agreed that environmental enrichments are important welfare-improving levers and preferred their use in low-input pig and poultry production. Animal breeding-related measures in pig production were perceived quite favorably by supply side stakeholders. Despite their welfare benefits, farmers in some countries had quite high preference towards maintaining castration and tail docking in pig and beak trimming in broiler production as part of their production method

Assessing the impact of grassland management extensification in temperate areas on multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity

In order to halt further biodiversity loss in the agricultural landscape, measures for grassland management extensification have been proposed and implemented. Apart from biodiversity conservation and enhancement, these measures are expected to affect a range of ecosystem services delivered by these grasslands. It is well-known that grasslands have the potential to contribute to the delivery of multiple ecosystem services, but there generally is a trade-off between provisioning services and regulating services, which is strongly linked to grassland management. This study investigated the effect of the extensification of grassland management on multiple ecosystem service and biodiversity indicators. To do so, two sets of grasslands in Flanders with varying management types were monitored: a regular, intensive management, a meadow bird management and a botanical management. For every monitored grassland, a land use intensity index was calculated and linked to the ecosystem service and biodiversity indicators. The results showed that biomass yield, forage quality, soil mineral N content and number of plant species differed among the various management types and that increasing land use intensity resulted in higher biomass yields, forage quality and soil mineral N content and in a lower number of plant species. However, it was observed that other factors such as the timing of the first cut affected these variables as well. A literature review was subsequently performed to quantify the link between land use intensity of other temperate grasslands and the same response variables. Results of the literature review confirmed the trends that were found in the monitoring data, but an additional effect of manure and slurry application on soil carbon stock was noted. Taken together, the results suggest that the impact of grassland management in terms of fertilization, mowing and grazing on the selected ecosystem service delivery and biodiversity indicators can be predicted, but that other management components should be considered as well

Monitoring the impact of hedgerows and grass strips on the performance of multiple ecosystem service indicators

The importance of semi-natural vegetation elements in the agricultural landscape is increasingly recognized because they have the potential to enhance multiple ecosystem service delivery and biodiversity. However, there is great variability in the observed effects within and between studies. Also, little is known about the simultaneous delivery of multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity because most studies focus on monitoring one service at a time and in conditions specifically suited to observe this one service. In this study, the results are presented of 1 year of monitoring of a set of parcel-level and simplistic ecosystem service and biodiversity indicators on parcels with grass strips or hedgerows. In the grass strips, an increase in soil organic carbon stock, a decrease in soil mineral nitrogen content, a different carabid species composition and a higher spider activity density were found, compared to the adjacent arable parcel. These results indicate a contribution of grass strips to climate regulation, the regulation of water quality, an increase of beta diversity and potential for pest control. Next to hedgerows, crop yield was reduced and winter wheat thousand kernel weight, soil organic carbon stock and spider activity density were increased. These indicators show an effect of the hedgerow on food production, climate regulation and potential for pest control. The study concludes that both grass strips and hedgerows have the potential to increase multiple ecosystem service delivery, but that an increase of every service is not assured and that multifunctionality is affected by management choices. Also, an improved experimental setup in order to enhance ecosystem service monitoring is suggested

Ecosystem service delivery of agri-environment measures : a synthesis for hedgerows and grass strips on arable land

In north western Europe, agricultural systems are generally managed to maximize the potential delivery of provisioning ecosystem services. This has often been at the expense of other ecosystem services. Because the current supply of most ecosystem services is insufficient to meet the increasing demand, particular attention to ecosystem service delivery and hence multifunctionality in agriculture is vital. In this paper, we quantitatively assessed the impact of hedgerows and grass strips bordering parcels with annual arable crops on the simultaneous delivery of a set of ecosystem services and from there we identified synergies and trade-offs on virtual parcels. After a systematic literature search, mixed models were applied on observations from 60 studies and quantitative effect relationships between ecosystem service delivery and hedgerow and grass strip characteristics were developed. Next to the hedgerow, until a distance of twice the hedgerow height, arable crop yield was reduced by 29%. Beyond this' distance, until 20 times the hedgerow height, crop yield was increased by 6%. Compared to a similar arable parcel without hedgerow or grass strip, soil carbon stock was 22% higher in the hedgerow, on average 6% higher in the adjacent parcel next to the hedgerow and 37% higher in the upper 30 cm soil layer in the grass strip. Both hedgerows and grass strips intercepted nitrogen from the surface (69% and 67%, respectively) and subsurface (34% and 32%, respectively) flow and phosphorus (67% and 73%, respectively) and soil sediment (91% and 90%, respectively) from the surface flow. More natural predator species were found on parcels with hedgerows, but the number of predators was unaffected. On parcels with grass strips, both predator density and diversity was higher and aphid density was reduced. Our calculations on parcel level indicate that the trade-off between arable crop yield and regulating ecosystem services depends on hedgerow width and height and parcel dimensions. A similar trade-off is found on parcels with grass strips, but increasing grass strip width results in a proportionally higher delivery of regulating ecosystem services

PPILOW, a European project dedicated to welfare in Poultry and PIg Low-input outdoor and Organic production systems - Newsletter issue 4

Newsletter du projet PPILO

Gradients in abundance and diversity of ground dwelling arthropods as a function of distance to tree rows in temperate arable agroforestry systems

Ground dwelling arthropods present in agricultural systems regulate multiple ecosystem services (ES), such as nutrient and carbon cycling and biological pest control. The presence of semi-natural landscape features, such as the tree component of agroforestry systems (AFS), can contribute to functional agrobiodiversity and optimize the delivery of such ES in agricultural landscapes. In temperate AFS, however, potential patterns in abundance and diversity have scarcely been investigated for detritivorous soil dwelling arthropods and only to a limited extent for predatory arthropods. Therefore, we have assessed the abundance and diversity of woodlice (Isopoda), millipedes (Diplopoda), rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae) as a function of the distance to the tree row in a set of temperate arable AFS. Abundance and diversity of woodlice and millipedes were significantly higher in the tree rows than in the arable zone. In the case of mature trees, a higher abundance of detritivores was also observed in the arable zone close to the trees. Tree presence did not consistently lead to higher abundance of predatory arthropods, but a limited increase in carabid diversity was observed in the arable zone close to the tree rows. These results indicate that in temperate AFS, the trees and the associated understory vegetation strip contribute to the preservation of arthropod biodiversity and the enhancement of associated ES in the tree rows and in the arable field zone