By Liliane Silva
Forages are the primary feed source for livestock production systems. Forage systems play an essential role in delivering ecosystem services (ES), and the management practices applied to them directly affect ES delivery. In recent years, forage research has expanded to better understand how management practices can be improved to optimize ES responses. Management practices directly affect forage production, nutrient cycling, animal performance, water conservation and quality, wildlife habitat, among others. Thus, it is crucial to understand how to adequately manage pastures to improve water conservation and quality to support animal performance and health and reduced environmental impacts in forage ecosystems.
Proper forage stand establishment and management is essential to optimize the persistence and longevity of pastures while supporting soil coverage, adequate root system development and persistence, and nutrient recycling in the ecosystem. The stand should be managed to be kept in vegetative stage and actively growing so plants use and capture nutrients reducing the potential of nutrient leaching and runoff. Thus, maintaining vegetation between the pasture and water source is important once will provide the same benefits to areas close to the waterbodies (e.g., ponds, streams).