Study on the production and the value of natural grasslands managed under biological agriculture in the Auvergne: first results

摘要

A trial was undertaken by the INRA Centre at Clermont-Ferrand-Theix (France) at 2 sites, Orcival (15 ha, with 100 ewes) and Redon (24 ha, with 230 ewes), to raise lambs using biological agricultural techniques. Certain techniques used in conventional agriculture were not applied, for example the use of synthetic fertilizers and phytosanitary agents. Cut grassland was fertilized solely with compost, starting in January 2000, and gave natural grassland with forage value within 3 yr (2000-02). Veterinary care was strictly controlled and the use of hormones forbidden. At Orcival, the experimental site was divided into two, one part fertilized with compost, and the other with N and K. At Redon, the whole site was fertilized with compost with litter. Data are given on forage biomass production (including the effect of different compost treatments at Redon -- applied as 1 or 2 doses, in autumn or spring), on the botanical and chemical composition and the nutritive value of the grassland vegetation, andon the N and P balance of the system at Redon over the 3 yr of the study. Although the results do not enable firm conclusions to be drawn, they are discussed, and various points of interest made.