Animal load and carrying capacity
when talking about animal cargo, reference is made to the number of units per hectare, the following loads can be calculated:
- Potential animal load: it is the one that is calculated, considering a 25% loss due to unforeseen events in the yield of the pasture and the technician assumes that the forage surface presents an excellent coverage of the pasture between 85 and 100%. These loads are usually carried out for the presentation of projects, since it is estimated that the foraged surface is handled correctly.
Design made in PowerPoint by @amestyj .
- Real animal load: for the real load, 25% of the losses due to unforeseen events in the pasture yield are taken into account, in addition, after completing the farm tour, the pasture coverage is determined, in case there is a 60% coverage, another 40% of losses in the pasture yield should automatically be taken into account, which may be due to degradation of the pastures by a deficient evil. In agrotecnia, we consider that this is the animal load that must be taken into account to make an excellent grazing organization.
Design made in PowerPoint by @amestyj .
It is important to clarify, that the same formula is used in the potential and actual animal load, only that before applying it, the due losses in the pasture yield must be subtracted, in order to then apply the calculations in the efficient way.
- Current animal load: it is also known as instantaneous load, the number of animal units present on the farm is taken into account among the number of hectares cultivated in pastures.
For example:
If you have the following quantities of animals per age group on your farms, the following procedure is performed to calculate the number of animal units present at the time of the inspection.
Design made in PowerPoint by @amestyj
If we determine that the farm has 30 ha (Hectares) destined to the forage area and obtaining the results described in the previous image, we proceed to apply the following formula:
Carrying capacity: is the capacity that a farm has through its forage area to feed or maintain a certain group of animal units. This can be calculated after having the actual animal load, since the animal load expressed in U.A/ha is multiplied by the number of hectares cultivated with pasture.
Effect of the load on the animal and the pasture
Calculating the number of animal units we can have per hectare is important, because as the load is adjusted to the appropriate maximums, individual profits decrease and profits per area increase. As for the pasture, if we do not adjust the load and exceed the number of animal units per hectare, a negative effect is created on the productivity and stability of the pastures, which translate into variations in the coverage, yield and quality of the pasture.
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| Bibliografía recomendada |
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González, B. (n.d.). The shepherding, organization and implementation. Faculty of Agronomy, Maracaibo Venezuela.
