Current Production Potential of Permanent Grasslands
per Vegetation Areas and Altitudes
(Caraş-Severin County, Romania)
Dragomir Neculai
1,
Văcariu Darius
1, Sauer Maria
2, Sauer Ioan
2, Pădeanu Ioan
1,
Dragomir Carmen
1,
Găvojdian Dinu
2, Rechiţean Dorin
11Faculty of Animal Science and Biotechnologies, 300645, Timişoara, Calea Aradului, no. 119, România
2Research-Development Station from Sheep and Goats Caransebeş, România
Abstract
Permanent grasslands in the Caraş-Severin County, Romania, cover, at present, 250,334 ha, i.e. 5.4% of the total grassland areas of the country. In this county, where grasslands represent 30% of the total area and 65% of the total agricultural area, permanent grasslands are important for the economy of the county both agriculturally, and socially and ecologically. Studies carried out show that the production potential of these grasslands varies between 8.51 and 13.14 ha of green matter; when applying complex mineral fertilisers, production increases three times and, when applying organic fertilisers, it increases two times. In general, after 500 m of altitude, green matter production decreases constantly with the increase of the altitude.
Keywords: permanent grasslands, vegetation areas, altitude, fertilisation, green matter production.
1. Introduction
During 1980-2000, there was a slight, constant increase of grassland areas at world level – from 3.24 billion ha in 1980 to 3.44 billion ha in 2000, i.e. an increase of 6.2%. At continental level, the highest increases of grassland areas were in Europe (21.3%), Asia (10.9%), and America (10.5%). In Africa and Oceania, grassland areas decreased with 9.6% and 9.3%, respectively, in favour of cultivated agricultural areas [1]. In 2004, in Romania, permanent grasslands covered 4.9 million ha, representing 20.6% of the total area of the country and 33.2% of the agricultural area. Ten years later, in 2014, the grassland area decreased to about 4.6 million ha, i.e. 9% [2]. At the level of E.U. Member-States, grasslands represent 33% of the agricultural area and other fodder crops only 11%, with a mean animal
* Corresponding author: Dragomir Neculai dragomirn2013@yahoo.com
charge of 1.06 UVM/ha and a mean milk production of 1958 l [3, 4]. In the Caraş-Severin County, the area covered by permanent grasslands, in 2013, was 250,334 ha, ranking second among Romania’s counties. This area represents 30% of the total area of the county and 65% of the agricultural area of the total area of the county [5].
2. Materials and methods
During 2010-2014, we organised 9 experimental points on the permanent grasslands in the Caraş-Severin County, Romania, located in four large vegetation areas and at four different altitudes: plain and plateau grasslands (100-300 m altitude), low hill grasslands (300-500 m altitude), high hill grasslands (500-700 m altitude), and sub-Alpine and Alpine grasslands (>700 m altitude). In each experimental point, we set a mono-factorial experiment after the randomised block method with three variants and three replicas: V1 = no
kg/ha), V3 = manure fertilisation (20 t/ha).
Organic fertilisation was applied in the fall of 2010 (once), and mineral fertilisation (N15P15K15)
was applied in early spring each year. In all 9 experimental points, we mowed twice in each production year. The productions of the three experimental years were expressed as green matter and we processed data statistically with the ANOVA test (variance analysis).
3. Results and discussion
Studies carried out in the 9 experimental points on the permanent grasslands of the Caraş-Severin County allowed us to estimate the current production potential of these grasslands per vegetation areas, while in the last three decades there were no improvement measures in the area.
Table 1.Production of green matter of the permanent grasslands of the Caraş-Severin County per vegetation areas (2011-2013)
Vegetation area Altitude (m) t/ha dif. (t/ha) % Significance
Plain and plateau grasslands 100-300 11.05 -0.11 99.0
Low hill grasslands 300-500 13.14 1.98 117.7 ***
High hill grasslands 500-700 11.94 0.78 106.9 ***
Sub-Alpine and Alpine grasslands >700 8.51 -2.65 76.2 000
GENERAL MEAN - 11.16 - 100
t/ha DL 5% = 0.28 DL 1% = 0.38 DL 0.1% = 0.52
Figure 1. – Impact of fertilisation and of altitude on mean productions of green matter (2011-2013)
Data presented in Table 1 show that the production potential of the permanent grasslands of the Caraş-Severin County had values ranging between 8.51 and 13.14 t/ha of green matter, depending on the vegetation areas of the grasslands. If we compare these data with their mean, we see that hill (low and high) areas produce the most, with increases ranging between 6.9-17.7%, ensured statistically. Statistically, to point out the interactions between altitude and experimental factors, we carried out 351 comparisons (C27
2
) classifiable in the AL classes
according to the DUNCAN test. Analysis of interactions shows that in the class A (the highest values of production levels), the following range: grasslands within 300-400 m altitude with a maximum of 18.62 t/ha of green matter in the variant fertilised with complex fertilisers and grasslands within 400 and 500 m with a maximum production of 18.55 t/ha of green matter again in the variant fertilised with complex fertilisers. The lowest production (3.64 t/ha of green matter) was in the variant studied at 1400 m altitude in the control variant (Figure 1).
Table 2. Total current and potential production of the total area of permanent grasslands (mean, 2011-2013) (thousands of t of green matter)
Vegetation areas Altitude (m) Area*)
ha (%)
No
fertilisation
(Mt)
Complex
fertilisation
(11:11:11)
(250 kg/ha)
Animal
manure
(20 t/ha)
Plain and plateau
grasslands
100-200 25033 (10) 106 335 256
200-300 77603 (31) 517 1368 1095
Low hill grasslands 300-400 42557 (17) 286 791 599
400-500 32543 (13) 165 488 303
High hill grasslands 500-600 25634 (10) 192 437 392
600-700 17523 (7) 103 281 188
Sub-Alpine and
Alpine grasslands
700-1000 12517 (5) 59 195 147
1000-1400 10014 (4) 41 136 83
>1400 7510 (3) 27 64 46
TOTAL 250334
(100%)
1496 4095 3009
MEDIA (t/ha) x 5.97 (100%) 16.35 (274%) 12.0 (201%)
Table 3. Actual and potential production of permanent grasslands with no natural restrictions per vegetation areas and elevation ranges (mean, 2011-2013) (thousands of t of green matter) Vegetation areas Altitude (m) Area*)
ha (%)
No
fertilisation
(Mt)
Complex
fertilisation
(11:11:11)
(250 kg/ha)
Animal
manure
(20 t/ha)
Plain and plateau
grasslands
100-200 20026 (11) 85 268 205
200-300 62082 (33) 413 1095 876
Low hill grasslands 300-400 34046 (18) 229 633 479
400-500 26034 (14) 132 390 164
High hill grasslands 500-600 17524 (9) 134 301 204
600-700 12266 (7) 72 197 132
Sub-Alpine and
Alpine grasslands
700-1000 6258 (3) 29 98 74
1000-1400 5007 (3) 21 68 42
>1400 3755 (2) 14 32 23
TOTAL (ha, thousands t) 186998 1129 3082 2199
MEDIA (t/ha, %) x 6.04 (100%) 16.48 (273%) 11.76 (195%)
*) Estimate use of permanent grasslands in the Caraş-Severin County: - plain and plateau grasslands: 80%;
- low hill grasslands: 80%; - high hill grasslands: 70%;
Experimental results regarding the production capacity of permanent grasslands in the Caraş-Severin County allowed us to estimate the total production of green matter in the area. Thus, data shown in Table 2 show that, without special measures of improvement, total production of green matter is about 1,500 thousand t, while with mineral fertilisation total production is above 4,000 thousand t and with organic fertilisation it is about 3,000 thousand t. We can see that, compared to the control variant, mineral fertilisation increases production 3 times, while organic fertilisation increases it about 2 times. Observations and measurements made show that, in the Caraş-Severin County, only 75% of the total area of grasslands (186,998 ha) are grasslands
with no natural restrictions: they are used for both fodder production and for other uses. If we compare the level of production and the area, data presented in Table 3 show that, depending on the vegetation area of the grasslands in the county, mean production of green matter is 6.04 t/ha in the control variant, 16.48 t/ha in the variant fertilised with mineral fertilisers and 11.76 t/ha in the variant fertilised with organic fertilisers. In these conditions, total estimated productions of green matter are over 1,100 thousands t on not fertilised grasslands, about 3,000 thousand t on grasslands fertilised with mineral fertilisers and over 2,000 thousand t on grasslands fertilised with organic fertilisers.
Table 4. Correlations and optimum values between altitude (m) and production of green matter (2011-2013)
Variant
Equation of square regression y = a0 + a1*x + a2*x 2
(n = 27 obs)
Equation of regression Correlation
coefficient (R)
Optimum value (calculated)
Altitude (m) MV (t/ha)
V1 Control MV = -0.00000191171x2 +
0.0018698x + 5.591094
0.67** 489 6.05
V2 Complex
fertilisers
(250 kg/ha)
MV = -0.00000696781x2 +
0.0083383x + 14.872727
0.84*** 598 17.37
V3 Animal manure
(20 t/ha)
MV = -0.0000033533x2 +
0.0020295x + 12.340544
0.84*** 303 12.65
Table 4 shows the square equations of regression with which one can determine optimum technical in the production of green matter depending on the altitude of the permanent grasslands in the Caraş-Severin County in the control variant and in the variants fertilised minerally and organically.
4. Conclusions
- The production potential of the permanent grasslands in the Caraş-Severin County had values between 8.51 and 13.14 t/ha of green matter depending on the vegetation area of the grassland; if we compare our data with the mean of these data, we can see that in the hill (low and high) area productions are the highest (6.9-17.7%), i.e. ensured statistically;
- Along the studied altitudes (between 100 and 400 m), productions of green matter oscillated between 6.14% (at altitudes above 1,400 m) and 13.14% (at altitudes between 300 and 500 m). above the altitude of 500 m, productions decrease constantly with the increase of altitude;
References
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5. ***EUROSTAT, 2010, Database of public data
available at Eurostat. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/poetal/page/poertalagri
