Project
Towards testing (inter)cropping-livestock integration
Biodiversity is an increasingly important topic within but also outside WUR. Contributing to increased biodiversity comes with challenges for current livestock farming systems, but also offers opportunities for novel approaches. For the Animal Sciences Group, and WUR as a whole, this raises the question what kind of research facilities will be needed in the future to be able to promote innovation in livestock systems. Therefore, in this project we will explore the needs and requirements for (new) WUR research facilities to address research questions regarding livestock in nature-positive farming systems.
Livestock farming has a major impact on the environment and global biodiversity, both on and off farm. A transition towards more sustainable and biodiversity-positive livestock farming is needed. One possible direction is to move from specialised farming towards more integrated crop-livestock systems. In those systems, livestock can contribute to crop production by using by-products or grass-clover leys as animal feed, by providing animal manure, as pest control, to improve soil quality and for a more stable farm income.
In addition, livestock species can play an important role in the transition from monocultures to intercropping by converting mixed products, which can currently be difficult to market for human consumption, into meat, milk or eggs. However, we face many challenges before these opportunities can be successfully applied in practice, including the need for a clear vision of what such an integrated system could look like nowadays and roadmaps towards achieving these systems in practice. Therefore, in this project we initiate and facilitate the conversation within WUR on the roles and added value of livestock in biodiversity-positive food systems, and what future research farms would be needed to demonstrate and study those.