Opportunities and Constraints for Production of Marketable Products from Temperate Grassland Systems with Minimal Financial Inputs

Grassland and fodder crops in temperate areas of the world are the main feed resources for milk and beef production. In general, grassland systems in industrialised countries have high financial inputs. The systems in which financial inputs are minimal are those that produce mainly under all-year grazing, with minimal or no inputs such as supplementary feeding, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, fertilisers, antibiotics, and growth promoters; in general they are located in temperate zones of non-industrialised countries. For this reason the products obtained from these systems (e.g., meat, milk) have at present a good opportunity in international markets where the demand for IIOn-contaminated products is increasing. It is estimated that this opportunity will be even better in the near future. fn the southern cone of America temperate grassland covers a vast area. In Argentina this zone, called the pampas region, covers 52 million ha; in Uruguay it covers 18.6 million ha and in Chile 3.5 million ha. Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay also have important areas of temperate grasslands. In these temperate zones, mainly owing to environmental conditions (climate and soil), livestock, crop, and integrated crop and livestock production systems coexist. In each of these systems the role of grassland where financial inputs are minimal will be analysed.