EVALUATION OF PRODUCTION AND FORAGE QUALITY OF A SILVOPASTORAL ALTOANDINO SYSTEM IN NARIÑO

Abstract

Taking into account the climatic adversities that limit animal production and its food supply, we must reorient forage production towards tree-based livestock systems that provide abundance, quality, and stability in critical periods, and that guarantee harmony with the environment. The investigation was conducted in the Meneses village, Villamoreno, Buesaco, Nariño, Colombia, with an average temperature of 15ºC, precipitation of 1,035 mm per year, and an altitude of 2,483 masl. The objective of the research was to evaluate the forage supply of a silvopastoral system (SSP), in the lower montane moist forest area (LM-mf), with the inclusion of shrubby forage species, distributed in three treatments: T1: Acacia decurrens × A. decurrens, T2: A. decurrens × Tithonia diversifolia, T3: A. decurrens × Sambucus nigra, and the control (T0) a conventional pasture composed mostly of Pennisetum clandestinum, Agrostis scabrifolia, Holcus lanatus, and Hypochaeris radicata. Some physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil, floristic composition and phenology, determination of diversity and abundance of species were evaluated through Simpson and Shannon indexes, production of edible biomass, nutritional quality through AOAC and Goering and Van Soest methods, and presence of secondary metabolites with the methodology described by Domínguez. The physical, chemical and biological factors had similar results between treatments, higher production of dry matter in T1, and T2, improving the food supply with the incorporation of shrubs. The statistical results obtained by IBM SPSS showed significant differences between treatments in dry matter production, T1 and T2 by Tukey test, were the treatments with the highest forage benefit, with productions of 2,223 and 1,978 Ton/DM/year, compared to T0, with 1,651 Ton/DM/year. Soil resistance in all treatments was high and severely limited: T0: 1.91 Mpa, T1: 1.85 Mpa, T2: 1.92 Mpa, and T3: 1.97 Mpa, causing root development difficulties of the shrub species implemented.