Dear readers, from agrotecnia with a group of students we had the opportunity to visit a while ago the Production Unit la Chiquinquirá which is located in the State Zulia, Municipality Colón, Parish San Carlos, Sector el Basureo Km 11 via Santa Bárbara Found, Geographically located according to the coordinates 085732 of north latitude and 720113 of west longitude, has an area of 238 ha, with an altitude of 4 meters above sea level. The objective of the visit was to determine their condition from the point of view of forage resources and the use of internal resources for the implementation of agroecological alternatives.
To begin with, it should be noted that the purpose of the farm is the production of milk and meat, presenting a dual-purpose livestock and buffalo farming, said property is also intended for experimental research in the animal area. It presents a considerable area (238 h) for the establishment of pasture crops that allow the exploitation of cattle, with this dairy and meat production it seeks to satisfy the needs of its employees and the general community, wanting to project itself as an agricultural company with a social and economic scope.
On the other hand, it is located in a strategic area of the Southern axis of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, since, among the most exploited items is milk and meat, having excellent opportunities for the commercialization of its products, counting on the presence of dairy and meat industries, in addition to adequate access roads for the transfer of its products, among the weaknesses can be mentioned the shortage in labor, also including some climatic factors such as rainfall, there is a history of flooding on the property.
Design made by @amestyj with own and public domain images taken from Commons.wikimedia
Also in the production unit is a specialized non-diversified production system, counting only on the sowing of pasture crops, and within which we find components such as: animal, soil, plant and man, which together forms the grassland ecosystem, within the system a herd of 244 animals is managed, of which only information of cows and buffaloes in milking was provided, the effective area in pastures does not present an optimal coverage being in the high areas Panicum maximum Jacq and low areas species of the genus Urochloa. Without performing any calculation of the animal load, it can be estimated that there is an imbalance in it.
As for the management of the system, there is a coordinator, production manager, veterinarian and workers. It should be noted that the labor force (workers) is unionized, therefore, there are some management tasks that are not fully fulfilled, resulting in there being no harmonious interaction between the different components of the livestock system.
In the same way, available resources such as water can be observed for the implementation of some fundamental management tasks on the property. Part of their economic income is used for the acquisition of inputs for production such as medicines, fertilizers, herbicides, tools and agricultural equipment, in addition there are some products that come out of the system such as milk, meat, cheese. In addition to by-products that are not used within the system such as bovine manure that can be used for some agronomic tasks within the agroecositema.
| Agronomic recommendations and practices that can be established in the system |
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First of all, the planning and distribution of the area intended for grazing is recommended, since there are paddocks with irregular sizes depending on the number of animals that are managed, there are paddocks that exceed 15 hectares.
The aforementioned planning must be carried out depending on the number of animal units and the yield of the pastures that are sown, therefore, with the coverage that is found for the time of the visit, a correct distribution would not be made. For it is recommended, the reseeding of the surface with the species that adapt in the area, for this, a progressive work must be carried out, where the land is prepared in some areas, the grasses are sown again and thus alternate in different areas until the entire area is recovered.
The species of grasses that can be sown are Megathyrsus maximus in the high areas and in the areas with higher humidity sow echynochloa arrecta and mutica, the Cynodon nlemfuensis can also be distributed.
An area could be delimited for the sowing of cutting grass and another for the sowing of forage species belonging to the legume family such as Leucaena leucocephala and Glirycidia sepium, which could serve as a protein bank and in other areas associate them with grasses generating a microecosystem called silvopastoral.
Establish preventive pest control measures and integrated weed management by alternating organic, mechanical and synthetic methods with the use of systemic herbicides.
Reuse of endogenous resources of the farm such as bovine manure, with which products based on bovine manure can be made, such as compost, tea, biol among others and in the same way establish worm farming systems and in this way efficiently use the manure that is a very desired organic matter by said annelids.
Dear readers, these are just some of the recommendations that can be established depending on the conditions presented by the livestock systems, this is only the first step after making a diagnosis, said work paper is presented to the producer and will be executed depending on the priorities and the economic liquidity that the agricultural company has.
| Recommended bibliographies |
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Chacón, E. (2013). Principles of management and use of tropical pastures for the production of pastured milk and meat. In F. GIRARZ, Tropical pasture and forage management (pp. 21-31). Maracaibo: Astro Data S.A.
Mancilla, L. (2000). Mancilla, L. (2000). Sustainable forage agriculture. In Z. C. Tejos Rony, Management and use of pastures and forages in animal production systems (pp. 26-39). Barinas: UNELLEZ.
