Potencialidades e desafios no manejo do rebanho leiteiro em assentamento rural

• Ano de defesa: 2013
• Autor(a) principal: Romualdo, Paula Lima
• Orientador(a): Lana, Rogério de Paula
• Banca de defesa: Mâncio, Antonio Bento
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Mestrado em Agroecologia
• Departamento: Agroecologia
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: Assentamento; Manejo de pastagens; Agricultura familiar; Zona da Mata Mineira
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Settlement; Pasture management; Family Farms; Zona da Mata Mineira
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::ZOOTECNIA
• Link de acesso: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/2011

Among the forms of soil management in Brazil, the pastures are an essential component of the landscape and it is estimated that 50-70% of these are in advanced stage of degradation. Pasture degradation is considered one of the greatest obstacles to national livestock, due to the fact that the pasture is the animal based food. In the Zona da Mata region in Minas Gerais there is a predominance of extensive livestock farming, managed in particular by family farming. Besides the degradation of pastures, the activity faces the seasonality of pasture production when there is excess production in the rainy season and shortages during the dry season. The region has rugged terrain, where the degradation of pastures in these areas is more intense and is directly linked to erosive processes, responsible for causing numerous environmental impacts. Milk production is presented as one of the main activities undertaken by family farms in Brazil and is characterized as an important activity for the productive and economic organization of Olga Benário settlement, located in Visconde do Rio Branco, Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais. Regarding the issue of cattle feeding, there is a lack of scientific information and practices on pasture management technologies available to families settled in areas of agrarian reform in the state which allows dairy production with economic and environmental sustainability. In this sense, the work was divided into two chapters. In the first one, the aim was to identify and analyse the strategies developed by the settlers in relation to living with the possibilities and limitations of natural resources available in the settlement. Specifically sought to: i) to investigate the planning and the alternatives adopted for the production of food available to dairy cattle during the dry season, ii) to investigate how water is supplied to the dairy herd in pasture areas and iii) to investigate the management of hillsides used as pasture. Through the use of participatory methodologies, it was established that families with planning capacity, i.e., those who are looking for suit, in advance, the availability of food to be offered to the flock during the drought by planting sugarcane and forages, manage to maintain milk production throughout the year. Also, seek the diversification of production, through the cultivation of vegetables and other foodstuffs, providing an income supplement to milk and ensuring food security. The pastures generally are managed continuously in batches which complicate establishing a period of rest to the grass, causing its degradation. The use of paddocks is an option adopted by a small number of settlers, however it is of interest to others, making it a viable and able alternative to reverse the degradation of pastures established in the region. Another factor favouring this degradation is the lack of water supply to the animals at the pasture. This makes the flock move steadily over the pastures, most located in areas of slopes, up to the available sources of water, concentrated in natural resources generating soil compaction and siltation of waterways. The second chapter aimed to describe the process of deploying an experimental unit of the Voisin Rational Grazing system (VRG) in a batch of a family at Olga Benario settlement. This experimental unit aimed to seek, through action research, develop scientific and technical knowledge to establish pasture management technologies for the dairy herd, appropriate to the reality of family farming in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais. From the challenges that arose during the process, it was established that the climate and topography of the region are presented as barriers to this technology, thus, we sought to identify alternatives to the VRG system, in order to add other forms of feed management to the technology. In addition, there is a need to create more partnerships between educational institutions, research centres and NGOs, aiming at deepening the discussion of technologies that follow the principles of agroecology, seeking to strengthen family farming and settlement development in the country. Thus, it aims to meet the demand of farmers for more affordable and sustainable technologies, trying to shake the technological packages and take over the job of using heterogeneous technologies, which are appropriate to local circumstances and the agroecosystems that will be managed, seeking the optimization of local resources and the autonomy of these productive families.