The impact of pasture biodiversity and grazing management on pasture productivity, GHG emissions and profit

The concept of regenerative agriculture encompasses several components (e.g., lower use of synthetic fertilisers, cell grazing, plant species diversity, improved soil carbon, integration of livestock, conversion of annual to perennial systems, silvopasture etc.). However, it is difficult to determine which of these components impact on carbon, greenhouse gas emissions, production or profit when combined holistically. It could be hypothesised that farms in higher rainfall zones sequester more carbon (due to greater growth), but this additional growth would also support additional carrying capacity, which in turn would increase enteric and manure methane per hectare. Such tradeoffs underscore a clear need for a holistic systems analysis that captures all animals on the farm and all GHG emissions (CO2, N2O, CH4). As such, this project is required to deconstruct two key components of regenerative agriculture (plant species diversity and cell grazing) using a number of scenarios to Increase the robustness of assessment of two of the more promising on-farm interventions which are likely to influence soil carbon, pasture production, greenhouse gas emissions and profit. The analysis will examine multiple levels of cell grazing duration, stocking rates and rest periods as well as pasture diversity. To disaggregate the impacts of annual rainfall and carbon emissions, results will be presented across a rainfall gradient to determine whether there is a driving effect of rainfall on GHG emissions and associated variables.