Abstract

BLANCO, Lisandro et al. Red nacional de monitoreo de pastizales naturales de Argentina: productividad forrajera de la vegetación extrapampeana. RIA. Rev. investig. agropecu. [online]. 2019, vol.45, n.1, pp.89-108. ISSN 1669-2314.

In Argentina, a significant portion of livestock production (cows, goats, sheeps and camelids) is sustained by the extra-pampean region, mainly supported by the forage contribution of native plant communities. In this context, it is essential to generate tools that allow a sustainable forage management of these environments. During 2006, INTA implemented a national network for monitoring forage productivity of native plant communities. We analyzed the forage productivity of 179 extra-pampean sites involved in the network. We detected regional asymmetries in relation to the number of monitored sites and the length of forage productivity datasets. The best-represented regions were the “ñandubay” district of the Espinal phytogeographical province, the Patagonian steppes, the western end of the Chaco province, and the Puna in Catamarca. Herbaceous forage productivity (HFP) was less than 1,000 kg ha-1 year-1 in 101 of the 179 sites, and the same was true for woody forage productivity (WFP) in the analyzed 85 sites. The highest HFP values were reported in wetlands of Patagonia (“mallines”) and Puna (“vegas”), the “ñandubay” district of the Espinal and riparian communities of Entre Ríos. While the HFP in the wetlands increased significantly with the increase of mean annual temperature (MAT), the HFP of non-wetland sites increased with mean annual rainfall (MAP). Finally, we observed that overgrazed sites had HFP values lower than those sites subject to conservative grazing. These results could be relevant for planning livestock production at regional scale, as well as an input for forage productivity models based on remote sensing.

Keywords : forage resources; native plant communities; extra-pampean livestock production.