Grazing intensity for enhanced resource use efficiency in integrated crop-livestock systems: Balancing soil carbon storage and food security.

Preserving natural resources while addressing global food demand is a critical responsibility of the agricultural sector. In light of this, strategically integrating domestic herbivores into crop monocultures is seen as a promising opportunity to generate additional income and improve the efficiency of food production. Our study presents long-term results from experimentation on Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems (ICLS), revealing its productive and environmental benefits.

Integrated crop and livestock systems increase both climate change adaptation and mitigation capacities.

Integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS) are proposed as key solutions to the various challenges posed to present-day agriculture which must guarantee high and stable yields while minimizing its impacts on the environment. Yet the complex relationships between crops, grasslands and animals on which they rely demand careful and precise management. In this study, from a 18-year ICLS field experiment in Brazil, that consists in annual no-till soybean-pastures grazed by beef cattle, we investigated the impacts of contrasted pastures grazing intensities (defined by sward heights of 10, 20, 30 and 40 cm, plus an ungrazed treatment) on the agroecosystem productivity and soil organic carbon (SOC) under both historical and future (2040-2070, RCP8.