Research Projects

Agrosilvopastoral System Involving Meat Goats and Swine, Tallahassee, Florida

Project Team

O. U. Onokpise, Principal Investigator, Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, Florida

Rationale/Objective

Developing agrosilvopastoral systems that integrate goats or swine with trees has great potential, especially for limited resource farmers in the southeast. The overall objective of the project is to evaluate the impact of raising meat goats and swine on tree growth under planted pines and mixed hardwood species. Specific objectives include finding the best stocking rates, best breeds and appropriate forage species for grazing between tree rows.

Goats purchased for the FAMU silvopasture trials

Work done

A systematic statistical design was used to obtain soil samples from three separate blocks (2, 3 & 7) of planted pines following thinning. Soil physical and chemical properties have already been analyzed for each of the blocks. Two varieties of bahiagrass (Tifton 9 and Pensacola), and two varieties of bermudagrass (Common, and NuMex-Sahara and Ranchero – a three-way blend of Giant, Mohawk and Cheyenne) have been fully established in replicated plots. Electric fencing has also been established around the forages in May 2003. A total of 47 meat goats (20 Boer x Spanish and 27 Spanish breeds) were bought from Texas in July 2003. A boer buck was bought along with the does for breeding purposes. In October and November 2003, these goats were bred as part of the FAMU-Statewide Goat Breeding program, following acclimatization. The does started kidding in March and April 2004. To date, approximately 52 kids have been produced, weaned and moved into established pastures for our stocking rates studies. Moveable houses are also under construction to house these goats. Six pigs representing two separate breeds have been purchased for introduction into the planted pine area. The sows will be bred later this year to obtain piglets for the projects. Pastorable pastures were evaluated for their performances during the growing season in July and August 2003 in order to determine herbage mass and quality at different stages of growth. Additional observations on the pastures were made in December 2003 and January 2004. DBH of loblolly pine trees were undertaken in July and December 2003, and February and May 2004 respectively. Evaluation of soil physical and chemical properties is continuing in order to determine the interaction effects of trees, established pastures and goats on the soil properties of the experimental sites. We participated in the CSTAF workshop conducted for County Extension Foresters in Gainesville and Quincy in March 2004.

Results

Research Results

Particle size analysis revealed that soil textural and other physical properties varied across blocks. The results indicated that the management of the thinned plantation will be block specific, reflecting the utilization of soil nutrients among trees in different blocks at the same location. Preliminary results of the weaning weights of kids showed significant variation among the goat breeds. Among the forage species, bahiagrass showed better establishment and growth performance compared to bermudagrass. Tifton 9 was the overall best performing forage variety. Forage growth rates and forage quality were not significantly affected by shading or lack of shading. In fact soil moisture retention in the agroforestry system may have enhanced the productivity of the pastures. Trees have increased their DBH since thinning as would be expected and in some cases by as much as twenty percent (20 %). As indicated in our 2003 Annual Report, this project has now been fully integrated into the Statewide Goat Research and Extension Project of FAMU. The project constituted a significant part of the FAMU Research and Extension field day in September 2003.

Our agrosilvopastoral systems project has been used to enhance undergraduate and graduate education programs at FAMU. During the past academic year, undergraduate and graduate students in four courses were exposed to the agrosilvopastoral systems project:

AGR 4512: Plant Ecology

AGR 5445: Advance Plant Science

AEE 4301: Sustainable Agriculture

FOR 3093: Forestry in Rural and Urban Environments

Other undergraduate courses that have planned to use the agrosilvopastoral systems sites include AGR 3232 (pasture and Range Management) and ANS 2001 (Introduction to Animal Science). On April 19, 2004, Mr. Leroy Whilby successfully defended his M.S. thesis "Evaluation of Bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) and Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L) Pers) As Pastorable Pastures under Newly Thinned Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda L) Plantation." He is now the first person to receive an M.S. degree with specialization in Agroforestry system, from the College of Engineering Sciences, Technology and Agriculture (CESTA), FAMU.

Planned for 2004-2005

Emphasis in the next year will be shifting to the stocking rate studies as we now have goats grazing the pastorable pastures. Additional breeding will be done in October and November 2004. a second graduate student with animal science background has been recruited to start her studies this summer. This will ensure that this critical aspect of our study is fully accomplished over the next two years, in order to enhance our preliminary results. Similarly, the breeding and evaluation of swine in tree rows will constitute part of the thesis work for our new graduate student. Data collection will continue on the growth and performance of forage grass species between tree rows. Further observations on tree growth will be undertaken. On the basis of our soil data, we have planned a fertilizer program for comparative work on nutrient availability to the trees and pastures.

FAMU graduate student Leroy Whilby shows his forage trials under a pine silvopasture system

Publications/Outputs

Onokpise, O.U. 2004. Agrosilvopastoral systems with small animals in Southern United States. In Allen et al. (eds), Book of abstracts, 1^st World Congress of Agroforestry (WCA), Orlando, Florida, June 27 – July 02, 2004. In press.

Onokpise, O.U. and L.A. Whilby. 2004. Tree growth of thinned loblolly pines in Quincy, North Florida. Florida Scientist 67:6-7.

Onokpise, O.U., A. McKenzie-Jakes, L.A. Whilby and N. Strong. 2004. Goats among trees: A silvopastoral possibility. CSTAF Fact Sheet #6.

Onokpise, O.U. and L.A. Whilby. 2004. Comparative tree growth of thinned loblolly pines for use in an agroforestry system. In Allen et al. (eds), Book of abstracts, 1^st World Congress of Agroforestry (WCA), Orlando, Florida, June 27 – July 02, 2004. In press.

Onokpise, O.U. and L.A. Whilby. 2004. Utilizing meat goats in loblolly pine agroforestry systems. In Allen et al. (eds), Book of abstracts, 1^st World Congress of Agroforestry (WCA), Orlando, Florida, June 27 – July 02, 2004. In press.

Onokpise, O.U. and L.A. Whilby. 2004. Soil physical properties in a bermudagrass-loblly pine agroforestry system. Soil and Crop Science Society of Florida. 64^th Annual Meeting, Tallahassee, Florida. May 19-21, 2004.

Onokpise, O.U. and L.A. Whilby. 2004. Evaluating forage grass cultivars for an Agroforestry System. Soil and Crop Science Society of Florida, 64^th Annual Meeting, Tallahassee, Florida. May 19-21, 2004.

Whilby, L.A. and O.U. Onokpise. 2004. Bahiagrass performance between tree rows of loblolly pines (Pinus taeda L). Florida Scientist 67:2.

Whilby, L.A. and O.U. Onokpise. 2004. Changes in physical and chemical properties of soil under pastorable pastures in rows of thinned loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L) trees. In Allen et al. (eds), Book of abstracts, 1^st World Congress of Agroforestry (WCA), Orlando, Florida, June 27 – July 02, 2004. In press.

Whilby, L. and O.U. Onokpise. 2003. Establishing pastorable pastures for a silvopastoral system from an existing 20 year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L) forest in North Florida. Proceedings, 13^th Biennial Symp., Assoc. of Research Directors (ARD), Inc. Atlanta, Georgia. March 29 – April 2, 2003. 2^nd Place award for Grad. Stu. Poster Papers.

Whilby, L. and O.U. Onokpise. 2003. Soil physical and chemical properties from a twenty year old pine plantation in North Florida. 67^th Annual Meeting of the Florida Academy of Sciences, Orlando, Florida. March 20-21, 2003

Whilby, L. and O.U. Onokpise. 2003. Converting a twenty-year old loblolly pine plantation into a silvopastoral system using bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) and bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) as pastorable pastures. Southeast Society of American Foresters Annual Meeting. Oct. 5-8, 2003, Mobile, Alabama.