Myriam Jordana Rivero

Rothamsted Research · Sustainable Agriculture Sciences – North Wyke

The milk fat depression (MFD) syndrome is a phenomenon consisting in a reduction of milk fat content below the expected values according to stage of lactation and production level, even at levels below milk protein content, which is the opposite of the normal situation. Typical diets inducing MFD include the provision of significant quantities of c...

The objective of this work was to assess the potential of near infrared spectroscopy to predict the immunoglobulin G (IgG) content in bovine colostrum. Liquid colostrum samples (n=157) were collected from Holstein cows from 2 dairy farms in southern Chile. Samples were obtained within 1h of parturition and scanned in folded transmission (transflect...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of herbage allowance on pasture DM consumption by growing European wild boar. An additional objective was to evaluate the influence of pasture consumption on supplemental diet intake and BW gain. A previously sown grass-clover pasture was managed by cutting to obtain an herbage mass equivalent...

The aim of this experiment was to investigate the grazing behavior and diet selectivity of the Chilota and Suffolk Down lamb breeds on secondary successional pastures in the Chiloé Archipelago (Chile). Eight Chilota and six Suffolk Down lambs (males) and their dams were selected and marked on their backs with an identification number. A 1-ha paddoc...

Plantago lanceolata L. (plantain) increases herbage dry matter (DM) production and quality during warm and dry conditions due to its deep roots and drought tolerance and reduces nitrogen losses in grazing systems compared to traditional pastures. However, plantain density usually declines after the third growing season, mainly due to defoliation ma...

The objective of the present study was to characterize the nutritional composition, fatty acid profile, and IgG concentration of the milk produced by Chilean Corralero horse (CCH) mares from breeding farms located in southern Chile. Forty-five milk samples were collected from three of the biggest breeding farms (coded as A, B and C) specialized in...

Traditional pastures in temperate regions face limitations such as reduced growth and nutritional quality during the summer season. Plantain (P. lanceolata L.) offers advantages like increased yield and decreased nitrogen losses from grazing ruminants. Effective grazing management is essential for pasture health, and defoliation frequency and inten...

In the context of ever-growing demand for food and associated concerns regarding the environmental impacts of high-input agricultural systems, there is growing interest in mixed farm enterprises to deliver greater sustainability compared with mono-enterprise production systems. However, assessments of such systems are complex and require high-resol...

To advance sustainable and resilient agricultural management policies, especially during land use changes, it is imperative to monitor, report, and verify soil organic carbon (SOC) content rigorously to inform its stock. However, conventional methods often entail challenging, time-consuming, and costly direct soil measurements. Integrating data fro...

Although grazing systems are widely used for lactating dairy cattle feed intake is generally lower than in a fully housed system even when the feed quality and animal’s nutritional requirements are similar. Here we investigate whether allocating additional herbage at a time linked to the cow’s behaviour can increase productivity using long range wi...

Agricultural soils account for about 60% of the global atmospheric emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). One of the main processes producing N2O is denitrification, which occurs under oxygen-limiting conditions when carbon is readily available. On grazed pastures, urine patches create ideal conditions for denitrification, espe...

Animal behavior is a complex trait known to have strong feedbacks with environmental conditions across all ecosystems. Understanding how animals interact with their environment is therefore a key element for gaining new insights on how ecosystem landscapes develop and what is the potential environmental degradation caused by different species of an...

With a growing body of research associating livestock agriculture with faster global warming, higher health costs and greater land requirements, a drastic shift towards plant-based diets is often suggested as an effective all-round solution. Implicitly, this argument is predicated on the assumption that the reallocation of resources currently assig...

The objective of this dataset was to compare animal welfare of two different beef rearing systems, using a mixture of physical measurements and qualitative behaviour analysis. Physical measurements involved visual assessment of a range of symptoms associated with common disease and infections of cattle: cleanliness, hairlessness, swellings, ocular...

The objective of the study was to compare Qualitative Behaviour Assessments (QBA) conducted in person/live with those conducted by video (V-QBA). The livestock used in this assessment were two groups of 30 finishing suckler beef cattle. Forty live QBA events were carried out between 20th November 2019 and 18th March 2020, with 2 assessors performin...

The UK Government has set an ambitious target of achieving a national “net-zero” greenhouse gas economy by 2050. Agriculture is arguably placed at the heart of achieving net zero, as it plays a unique role as both a producer of GHG emissions and a sector that has the capacity via land use to capture carbon (C) when managed appropriately, thus reduc...

Grazing livestock plays an important role in the context of food security, agricultural sustainability and climate change. Understanding how livestock move and interact with their environment may offer new insights on how grazing practices impact soil and ecosystem functions at spatial and temporal scales where knowledge is currently limited. We ch...

Calcified seaweed (CS) based products have been proposed as an alternative ruminal pH buffer to sodium bicarbonate. It has been reported that magnesium can aid in ruminal pH control too, especially those natural marine forms. We assessed the rumen buffer capacity and milk production and milk composition of two CS: Acid Buf (AB) compared with M12 (a...

This study aims to evaluate water, land, and nutrient efficiencies in a tropical beef feedlot system, considering local conditions and feed cultivation. The study was conducted at the Experimental Feedlot of Embrapa Southeast Livestock in Brazil. Forty-eight Nellore bulls were divided into two groups, with one group having shade (GS) and the other...

Faecal lipidome signatures may vary depending on diet. Analyzing 17 different lipidome compounds and calculating ratios between them, we analysed the composition of faecal lipidomes (fatty alcohols, stanols, and archaeol) of beef cattle fed different diets. In this study, we measured the faecal lipidome profiles of beef cattle fed three types of gr...

Animal welfare encompasses all aspects of an animal's life and the interactions between animals. Consequently, welfare must be measured across a variety of factors that consider aspects such as health, behaviour and mental state. Decisions regarding housing and grazing are central to farm management. In this study, two beef cattle systems and their...

On the 18th and 19th of July 2022, the UK experienced a record-breaking extreme heat event. For the first time, temperatures exceeding 40C were recorded. Whilst this may seem exceptional or unprecedented, the progression of climate change is expected to increase both the likelihood and severity of such events. Livestock are vulnerable to heat stres...

Rotational rice systems, involving pastures, other crops and/or livestock, are common in temperate South America, exemplified by the rice-pasture-livestock system of Uruguay which combines very high rice yields with tight nitrogen (N) balances. The generally good nutrient use efficiency in these systems provides a template for nutrient management i...

The reintegration of crops with livestock systems is proposed as a way of improving the environmental impacts of food production globally, particularly the impact involving nitrogen (N). A detailed understanding of processes governing N fluxes and budgets is needed to design productive and efficient crop–livestock systems. This study aimed to inves...

Urea present in cattle urine contributes large amounts of nitrogen (N) to grazed pastures, which can be the equivalent to approximately 1000 kg N ha−1. However, there are no studies in volcanic soils of southern Chile on the effect of different concentrations of urinary N deposited in the soil, nor of the effect different wetting and drying conditi...

Quantifying and improving efficiency within beef systems is essential for economic and environmental sustainability. The industry standard for assessing efficiency is liveweight gain per day, however, this metric is limited in that it values each day of a growing animal's life as equally costly, despite the increasing maintenance requirements, inpu...

Integrated Crop Livestock Systems (ICLSs) use productive diversification as a strategy to improve productivity and land use efficiency. Pasture Crop Rotations are a part of ICLSs and imply a pasture phase included in the sequence of crops. The main reasons to include pastures in crop systems are low productivity of natural grasslands and increased...

Cow urine is a rich source of mobile nutrients such as nitrate (NO3−) and potassium (K+). The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the wetting pattern distribution through soil profile of cow urine patch in an andisol. Two field experiments across two consecutive years were carried out to compare cow urine patches in relation to initial wetting p...

The inclusion of fresh forages into dairy cows’ diets during the winter can represent economic and nutritional benefits but can affect cows’ metabolic function. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of using fresh berseem clover/oat (MIX), fresh lucerne (LEG) and hay/silage (CON) as forage basis for total mixed ration during the winter period on d...

Journal: Ruminants (MDPI) ____________________________________________________________________________________ The Maraichine breed of cattle originates from the Loire region of France and has been under a conservation programme since 1986. This programme links the conservation of the breed with the conservation of its traditional environment of w...

Animal welfare is an inextricable part of livestock production and sustainability. Assessing welfare, beyond physical indicators of health, is challenging and often relies on qualitative techniques. Behaviour is a key component of welfare to consider and Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) aims to achieve this by systematically scoring behaviour...

The objective of this study was to assess N dynamics in the soil, and the response in regard to dry matter yield (DM yield; ), N yield (g N -2) and N concentration (g N kg-1 DM) under urine patches and dung pats and in the affected zone of the grassland soil over 304 days. The amount of N under the urine and dung patches increased until day 10 and...

OPEN ACCESS https://www.publish.csiro.au/an/pdf/AN21516 Sustainability is a complex theorem driven through the optimisation of interconnected economic, social and environmental parameters. Balancing trade-offs between these three parameters is used to define a sustainable system, and while economic and, to a degree, environmental parameters can be...

The case for grazing dairy cows at pasture is reviewed in six categories: (i) optimal land use for food production; (ii) soil carbon sequestration; (iii) carbon footprint; (iv) animal health and welfare; (v) effects on human health of milk produced from grazed pasture; and (vi) consumer demand for milk from grazed cows. Land best-suited to grazing...

Implications • The Global Farm Platform was conceived and established to explore multidisciplinary strategies for optimising the sustainability of ruminant livestock systems around the world. • International sustainability issues are common, but the solutions are often region-specific; therefore, our farms, situated across all major agroclimatic zo...

Increasing demands for land is necessitating the optimisation of grazing land used for livestock production. Hormonal growth promoter implants (HGPI) are widely used to improve cattle performance and thus land-use efficiency. However, there is limited information on their efficacy in grazing systems. Forty grazing steers, 10 of each breed (Angus, H...

Climate change is an imminent threat to livestock production. One adaptation strategy is selection for heat tolerance. While it is established that the ATP1A1 gene and its product play an important role in the response to many stressors, there has been no attempt to characterize the sequence or to perform expression profiling of the gene in product...

Over many decades there has been a global trend away from mixed farming and integrated crop-livestock systems to more-intensive single commodity systems. This has distorted local and global nutrient balances, resulting in environmental pollution as well as soil nutrient depletion. Future food systems should include integrated crop-livestock systems...

The role of beef in human diets has been questioned over the last few decades, due largely to its typically high mass-based carbon footprint. However, recent advancements in sustainability literature challenge this paradigm based on the new theory that climate impacts of food commodities should be measured relative to their overall nutritional valu...

Understanding the behaviour of grazing animals at pasture is crucial in order to develop management strategies that will increase the potential productivity of grazing systems and simultaneously decrease the negative impact on the environment. The objective of this review was to summarize and analyse the scientific literature that has addressed the...

Purpose Intensive livestock grazing has been associated with an increased risk of soil erosion and concomitant negative impacts on the ecological status of watercourses. Whilst various mitigation options are promoted for reducing livestock impacts, there is a paucity of data on the relationship between stocking rates and quantified sediment losses....

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772283X21000212

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772283X21000200

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772283X21000777

The aim was to determine the effect of the herbage allowance (HA) and supplement type (ST) on dry matter intake (DMI), milk production and composition, grazing behavior, rumen function, and blood metabolites of grazing dairy cows in the spring season. Experiment I: 64 Holstein Friesian dairy cows were distributed in a factorial design that tested t...

Ruminant livestock are raised under diverse cultural and environmental production systems around the globe. Ruminant livestock can play a critical role in food security by supplying high-quality, nutrient-dense food with little or no competition for arable land while simultaneously improving soil health through vital returns of organic matter. Howe...

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of perennial ryegrass (PRG) forages differing in their concentration of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and crude protein (CP), and collected in spring and autumn, on in vitro rumen fermentation variables, nitrogen (N) metabolism indicators and methane (CH4) output, using a batch culture sys...

Mixed crop-livestock long-term experiments (LTE) are critical to increase the understanding of sustainability in complex agroecosystems. One example is the 'Palo a Pique' LTE which has been running for 25 years in Uruguay (from 1995 to present), evaluating four pasture-crop rotations under livestock grazing with no-till technology in soils with sev...

The present study aimed to investigate whether different lines of a composite breed (5/8 Charolais × 3/8 Zebu), formed at different times, and genetically improved, would result in differences in animal performance, enteric methane emissions, and carcass traits. Forty-six Canchim steers (15 months, 280 ± 33 kg liveweight) from three different lines...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the short-term effects of daily herbage allowance (DHA, defined as the product of pre-grazing herbage mass and offered area per animal) on pasture conditions and milk production of Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Forty-four early lactation dairy cows were randomly assigned to one of four treatments in a 2 × 2 fac...

Grazing plays an important role in milk production in most regions of the world. In this review, some challenges to the grazing cow are discussed together with opportunities for future improvement. We focus on daily feed intake, efficiency of pasture utilization, output of milk per head, environmental impact of grazing and the nutritional quality t...

Grazing ruminant systems can be sustainably intensified by improving efficiency while reducing their environmental impact. The objective of the present study was to examine the potential of pastures differing in water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and crude protein (CP) contents to affect milk production and composition as well as the behaviour of co...

Effects of stress on reproductive performance in ewes may have severe consequences for fecundity and fertility, and therefore reduce lambing percentage. Exposure to heat stress triggers a series of drastic changes in the animals' biological functions, and can be explored using the Comprehensive Climate index (CCI). We studied the CCI from post-wean...

Due to its distinct properties, wild boar meat is considered a highly desirable consumer product, in a market that is expanding. Outdoor production is also favoured by consumers who value animal welfare and environmental sustainability when choosing meat products. There is evidence that farms that include pasture for grazing typically have reduced...

Journal: Agronomy Abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the joint effect of perennial ryegrass cultivars and drying methods on concentrations of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and crude protein (CP) and WSC/CP ratio. AberMagic AR1 and Expo AR1 forage were collected in December 2016, March, June, September and November 2017 and eit...