In Slovenia: Management of Intensive Land Use Systems

Abstract

The abandoning of agricultural use of land occurs in Slovenia on Karst and hill regions where the ground is very stony or land is very steep. Such abandoned land has become overgrown by shrubs and forest. Grazing animals are the cheapest source of power, the only available labour, the most natural way of returning plant nutrients to the soil and nowadays can be used for recultivation of such land. The oldest silvopastoral system in Slovenia was introduced 400 years ago in the low Karst region. Mountain pasture in Vremšica can be considered to be one of the earliest trials with silvopastoral systems. Sheep and goat grazing was extended from pastures to shrublands with controlled browsing. The results showed that green leaves in pure hazel shrubbery amounts to 5.2 t ha⁻¹ with a total aboveground biomass up to 11.7 t ha^-1. But with 310.9 mg kg^-1 of Manganese hazel shrub dry matter exceeds recommended nutritional level for two times. Such land should be subdivided into paddocks to apply systems to control grazing, and to achieve even distribution of excreta over land under utilization. Stocking rates must be higher than the available herbage mass would support to return depleted nutrients with supplementary feeding on grazing land. Out-wintering on silvopastoral land is a very efficient way to achieve this objective. In most cases silvopastoral land is found adjacent to a forest. Efficient predator damage prevention should be applied as wolf, bear and lynx are highly protected in areas where the environment is poor enough to introduce a silvopastoral system. Predator attacks amounted in a 6 years period up to 1,000 with more than 3,500 animals killed. Among killed grazing animals sheep prevailed. From current experience, silvopastoralism must be investigated and presented as a management option for intensive land use systems. Silvopastoralism deals with soil, herbage plants, woody plants, farm animals and predators. Extensive management has normally been applied where land has traditionally been relatively cheap. With all the information available about grassfed products (meat, milk) there is no need to promote silvopastoral products as a source of cheap, healthier and safer food, than food produced with conventional farming. Consumers are willing to pay more for grass-fed food if they are told more often what is good for them in.