Brazil has the largest commercial beef cattle herd in the world (over 190 million head in 2006) [1], with cultivated pastures occupying about 150 million hectares of its territory [2]. On a biome basis, the most extensive pasture occupation is found in the Cerrado (~ 546,251 km, amounting to about 26.8% of the total biome area and 36.8% of the total pasture area in Brazil), the Brazilian savann...

The dynamics of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon are complex. A growing debate considers the extent to which deforestation is a result of the expansion of the Brazilian soy industry. Most recent analyses suggest that deforestation is driven by the expansion of cattle ranching, rather than soy. Soy seems to be replacing previously deforested land and/or land previously under pasture. In thi...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of population-wide hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia has not been well studied in the pasture area of Xinjiang. The present epidemiological study was performed to determine the prevalence of hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia in minority populations from the pasture area of Xinjiang and to discuss the potential risk factors for hypertension. METHODS A popula...

Postweaning growth patterns and preweaning milk and forage intake were observed over a 4-yr period for 137 Angus calves allowed either fescue-legume or fescue pastures preweaning. After weaning, calves grazed fescue pasture until spring for a slow growth phase and then fescue, orchard grass, bluegrass and ladino clover pastures for 4 mo. Following this period, the calves were confined and fed s...

Grazing management affects ecosystem function through impacts on soil condition. We investigated the effects of long-term (over 70 years) grazing on soil properties and nitrous oxide (N2O) emission within a moderately grazed native vegetation pasture (MGP), heavily grazed native vegetation pasture (HGP), and a fertilized crested wheatgrass (Agropyron desertorum (Fisch. ex. Link) Schult.) pastur...

Limited availability of herbage during the cool season creates a problem of a supply of nutrients for livestock producers throughout the southern Great Plains of the USA and, particularly, on small farms where resource constraints limit possible mitigating strategies. Six coolseason grasses were individually sown into clean-tilled ground, no-till drilled into stubble of Korean lespedeza [Kummer...

The Amazon rainforest, the largest equatorial forest in the world, is being cleared for pasture and agricultural use at alarming rates. Tropical deforestation is known to cause alterations in microbial communities at taxonomic and phylogenetic levels, but it is unclear whether microbial functional groups are altered. We asked whether free-living nitrogen-fixing microorganisms (diazotrophs) resp...

The Montado is a silvo-pastoral system characterized by open canopy woodlands with natural or cultivated grassland in the undercover and grazing animals. The aims of this study were to present several proximal sensors with potential to monitor relevant variables in the complex montado ecosystem and demonstrate their application in a case study designed to evaluate the effect of trees on the pas...