Evaluation of deficit irrigation for efficient sheep production from permanent sown pastures in a dry continental climate
Highlights
► Limiting irrigation to 50% of the full requirement, or lower, reduced the animal production potential. ► The water productivity at 100% of the full water requirement was low, particularly during summer months. ► Water productivity of forage and meat production increased with deficit irrigation. ► Deficit irrigation at 50 and 75% of the full requirement, prior to de-stocking pastures in summer, may be a valuable practice.
Introduction
Sheep production is an integral part of crop-livestock farming in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey like in many other dry areas of the world. Animal meat production is in great demand due to the vast increases in the human population of these areas (Hopfenberg and Pimentel, 2001, IFPRI, 2000, Tan et al., 2000). However, poor productivity from overgrazed rangelands does not enable the sustainable intensification of sheep production that is necessary to meet this demand. Rehabilitation of degraded rangelands is not a feasible short-term remedy since it is expensive and may take a long time depending upon the degree of disturbance (Allen, 1995). Alternatively, forages and sown pastures grown on arable land can provide high quality feed to improve animal production (Aganga and Tshwenyane, 2003, Gokkus et al., 2005) and complement rangeland grazing (Bowman and Sowell, 2003).
The erratic and low precipitation often causes feed shortages, and annual and seasonal variations in forage production in most dry areas (Ates et al., 2010, Mills et al., 2008). Supplemental irrigation can extend the growing season, increase reliability and pasture persistence to help attain desirable pasture and animal production (Jensen et al., 2001). However, animal production that relies on irrigated pastures is subject to water scarcity, the same as irrigated field crops in dry areas of the world. Irrigated agricultural production is already under pressure due to declining water resources that force farmers to grow more with less water (Oweis and Hachum, 2008, Postel, 1998). It is, therefore, inevitable that the scarcity of water will require a proper management of the irrigation resources to improve the water productivity in arable lands (McBride, 1994, Oweis and Hachum, 2008). This becomes even more crucial with declining precipitation (IPCC, 2007) and a degradation of environmental quality due to excessive irrigation abstraction in the region (Yilmaz, 2010).
The highest water requirement for optimal crop production has been recorded in Egypt, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, reflecting the ineffective use of irrigation in hot, arid areas (Doell and Siebert, 2002). The negative impact of this inefficient use of scarce water resources on agricultural production and the environment is projected to be exacerbated by climate change and recurrent droughts (IPCC, 2007). It is likely that the scarcity of water will impact forage production to a larger degree than field crops, which have priority for irrigation resources because of their role in providing food security in most dry areas of the world (Carruthers et al., 1997, Lobell et al., 2008). This situation will put more pressure on animal production systems that rely on irrigated forages and pastures to support meat production in these areas. Thus, the emphasis of irrigation management needs to be focused on maximizing forage and animal production per unit of water consumed. Deficit irrigation, which is defined as water application at a level below full crop requirement, has been promoted as one of the primary means of maintaining productivity and coping with scarce water supplies (Fereres and Soriano, 2006, Oweis and Hachum, 2008).
Several studies have investigated the effects of irrigation on the plant physiology and productivity of pasture and forage plants in small plots (Aranjuelo et al., 2011, Assuero et al., 2002, Justes et al., 2002, Suarez et al., 2003, Vignolio et al., 2002) and have reported a linear relationship between yield and evapotranspiration for a given forage species, which varies between regions and years. In studies where losses from runoff and drainage were negligible, there has generally been a decline in water productivity in response to decreasing water application below optimum irrigation (Farre and Faci, 2006, Kiziloglu et al., 2006). However, little published data is available on the effect of deficit irrigation on sheep production from permanent sown pastures in the dry areas of the world. It is likely that different levels of irrigation will have an impact on pasture dynamics and, therefore, on sheep production. It is important to define the best deficit irrigation strategy for an efficient low-cost sheep production from permanent sown pastures in these areas. The adaptation of water application strategy that sustains environmental quality and improves animal productivity will be directly linked to the sustainability of irrigated pastures. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of deficit irrigation on forage and animal production, and water productivity (units of water to produce a unit of forage or liveweight) in permanent pastures.
Section snippets
Site
The study was conducted within a 1.34 ha paddock at Bahri Dagdas International Agricultural Research Institute (37°51′N, 32°33′E, 1008 m a.s.l.), Konya, Central Anatolia region of Turkey from September 2008 to November 2010. The site has a clay–loam soil with slightly alkaline characteristics. Soil tests taken on 4 April 2007 gave: pH (in water) 7.8, soluble salt 0.05%, organic matter 3.7%, available phosphorous (P) 250 kg ha−1, calcium (Ca) 426 kg ha−1 and potassium (K) 250 kg ha−1.
Pasture establishment and experimental design
A pasture seed
Pasture dry matter production
Total accumulated DM production (kg ha−1 y−1) of pastures irrigated at four levels from 2008 to 2010 is given in Fig. 1. The total annual accumulated DM production ranged from 4070 kg ha−1 in pastures irrigated at 25% of full requirement to 9800 kg ha−1 y−1 for fully irrigated pastures over the three-year period. Dry matter production decreased (P < 0.01) with each decreasing level of irrigation with the 25% treatment having 50% lower production than the 100% treatment. The only exception was that the
Discussion
The study aimed to evaluate whether deficit irrigation would be a useful management strategy to improve the efficiency of sheep production from irrigated pastures in dry areas where water scarcity is a common event. Table 4 compares the average total dry matter and meat production, total water received (rainfall + irrigation) and water productivity under the four treatments. The highest dry matter as well as meat production was observed under the full irrigation (100%) treatment but at a low
Conclusions
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Permanent sown pastures can provide satisfactory animal production (∼500 kg ha−1 y−1) when 75–100% of the full irrigation requirement is applied in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey.
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Animal production from pastures irrigated at 75% of the full requirement was similar to that from pastures which received full irrigation but reducing irrigation to 50% of the full requirement caused substantial reduction in the animal production potential.
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Liveweight production (kg ha−1) in spring and early summer
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Drs. Derrick Moot, David Feindel and Hamish Brown for reviewing the manuscript and Dr. Murari Singh for providing advice on statistical analyses. Funding for this project was provided by Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.
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