The role of beef in human diets has been questioned over the last few decades, due largely to its typically high mass-based carbon footprint. However, recent advancements sustainability literature challenge this paradigm based on new theory that climate impacts food commodities should be measured relative their overall nutritional value rather than nominal mass. This shift opened a opportunity ...

In pasture-based milk production systems, using available farm resources in order to reduce feeding costs, the composition and functional properties of dairy cows’ milk are of considerable importance to the dairy farmer, manufacturer and consumer. Basically, there are three options for altering the composition and/or functional properties of milk: 1) cow nutrition and grazing management, 2) cow...

Lucerne has been found to be a valuable pasture plant for young sheep (Morley and Axelsen 1965; Reed, Snaydon and Axelsen 1972), but its value for fattening cattle has not been compared with that of grass legume pastures such as phalaris-subterranean clover. The effect of pasture species may depend on stocking rate, and perhaps influence the weights at which different breeds of cattle are ready...

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...

The integration of food production and biodiversity conservation represents a key challenge for sustainability. Several studies suggest that even small structural elements in the landscape can make a substantial contribution to the overall biodiversity value of the agricultural landscapes. Pastures can have high biodiversity potential. However, their intensive and monofunctional use typically e...