BENEFITS OF CROP-LIVESTOCK INTEGRATION COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK: A DETAILED ANALYSIS

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.97341024120812

• Palavras-chave: Crop-Livestock Integration; Beef cattle farming; Average Daily Gain; Agribusiness.

• Keywords: Crop-Livestock Integration; Beef cattle farming; Average Daily Gain; Agribusiness.

• Abstract:

  The evolution of the national agricultural scenario brought, in addition to positive aspects, also negative consequences from an economic and environmental point of view. Monoculture and inadequate cultural practices have caused loss of productivity, increased occurrence of pests and diseases, degradation of soil and natural resources. Integration systems between crops and livestock have the potential to increase grain and meat/milk productivity, in addition to reducing the risks of degradation. Results obtained with crop-livestock integration (ILP) demonstrate the benefits of this type of system on the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. Given this, the general objective was to analyze the benefits of implementing crop-livestock integration (ILP) on traditional livestock farms. Specifically, we sought to carry out a comparative analysis of yield between the conventional and ILP systems, in addition to analyzing the average daily gain index (ADG) and, finally, analyzing the area capacity and animal weight gain during the dry period. The results were carried out from a sample of 23,867 cattle in the ILP system and 17,628 cattle in the conventional system and showed that the remaining pasture left after the use of ILP generates soil cover for the plantation. There was also an improvement in rearing performance in ILP compared to the traditional system in Average Daily Gain (ADG) of around 267%, going from 0.180 kg ADG to 0.680 kg ADG.