Beef cow-calf organic production system

Abstract

Chile has large areas of natural grasslands and naturalized pastures suitable for organic livestock production systems, and because of this, knowledge of their production possibilities is required. The objective of this study was to determine pasture and cattle production of a Hereford cow-calf grassland system implemented according to the Chilean organic protocol. The study considered 7.5 ha of a perennial and annual ryegrass and legume pasture sown in 1976, under a conventional management system until 2000, and under an organic system from April 2001 to April 2009. The system initially considered 7 Hereford pregnant cows with autumn calving dates concentrated between August and September. Pregnant and calving rates of the herd, weaning weight of calves, stocking rate and live weight per hectare were determined. The pasture was fertilized with approved products and annual yield and soil fertility were determined. During the study period, the average stocking rate reached a value of 1.5 AU ha-1 and 277 kg live weight ha-1 The average cow liveweight was 572 kg and pregnant and calving rates were 91.6 and 79.8%, respectively. The weaning weight was 251 kg for males and 231 kg for females. Annual pasture DM yields reached an average 6.2 t DM ha-1. It is concluded that under the Chilean organic protocol and the conditions observed in the study, an organic cow-calf system can reach an average of 277 kg ha-1, without affecting the production, botanical composition of the pasture, or the reproductive and productive parameters of the cows.