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Animal welfare initiatives

Pâturage mixte bovins-équins, et si les bénéfices étaient multiples?

By February 28th 2021March 16th, 2021No Comments

Document type : news item from theINRAE website

Preview: The PaturBovEquin research project, conducted by INRAE and IFCE,compares the benefits for grass usage, parasite infestation and animal growth of the simultaneous grazing of saddle horses and suckling cattle with that of single-species equine or bovine grazing. After three years of research on the Le Pin site in Normandy, the first results of the project demonstrate the advantages of mixed grazing.

Mixed grazing consists in allocating different species of herbivores to the same area, whether simultaneously or alternately, during the grazing season. This practice, which has been used for decades by farmers, has many advantages. The purpose of this research is to provide an objective analysis of its benefits and to specify management methods.

Following three years of grazing on the Pine site, the data collected on animal feeding behaviours, grassland cover characteristics and the evolution of gastrointestinal parasites in the two species suggest favourable results for mixed grazing.

First trends

- nutrition: there appears to be more homogenous cover in the mixed case.

- parasites: there appears to be a reduced average number of dewormings required for foals during the grazing season.

- bovine growth: animals kept in mixed systems seem to grow faster.

These results are very encouraging and will be confirmed in the final year of the study. A statistical analysis of the data collected on the impact of the three treatments ("mixed", "equine only" and "bovine only") on grass cover, gastrointestinal parasites and growth performance of the two species is planned for 2021 based on three years' project data. 

Challenges and opportunities for improvement

- To provide technical information to farmers and agricultural advisors on the implementation of simultaneous mixed equine-cattle grazing in productive Normandy meadows

- To specify the advantages and limits of the equine-cattle mix when the two species continuously graze a fertile meadow with an adapted load during the season

- To determine, from various current and future studies, which methods of mixed equine-cattle grazing maximize expected benefits.

From the INRAE website