Potentials and challenges for future sustainable grassland utilisation in animal production

The paper highlights particular benefits and challenges coming along with ruminant production on permanent grasslands and rangelands. A threefold synergy is (i) the utilisation of a nutrient source which is independent of arable land, (ii) the ecological benefits of maintained permanent pastures, and (iii) the production of food with a high nutritional and sensory quality. However, a sustainable use of these pastures requires appropriate management, facing very different challenges depending on the regional conditions. Systemic management schemes based on specific characteristics of the pastures are required for their maintenance and/or development. A further challenge are pasture-bound gastro-intestinal parasites control, which are, however at least partly also an issue of grazing management. The particular nutritional properties of grassland-derived products are scientifically well established, although deeper understanding of specific underlying metabolic mechanisms is still an objective of ongoing manifold research. Implementation of instruments for evaluation of these nutritional values in the market chain is lacking. Scientifically many options for the authentication of grassland-based products are under development, and a major task remains their implementation into practice. Decisive for all successful developments are the economic and political frameworks. A multi-perspective re-consideration of the concepts of efficiency for animal production seems to be required for a fair assessment of the services that production systems based on grasslands and rangelands bring to global food production