The role and management of herbal pastures for animal health, productivity and product quality

Summary

This review seeks to address the role and management of herbal pastures for animal health, productivity and product quality. It aims to do this by way of reviewing available Defra funded and other research and identifying key and relevant aspects. In particular the target issues are: •Impact on animal health and growth
• Mixtures/varieties
• Meat quality
• Production/yield; and
• Climate change issues.
There is however a clear variation in the number of papers focused on these various issues, with the majority of research being concerned with the impact on internal parasites and animal production performance primarily in sheep and deer. There is however more recently some research coming out of New Zealand concerning climate change issues with respect to dairy cows. This review highlights the key findings of individual papers, areas of knowledge and weakness along with opportunities for additional research. In section 2 the key points (in terms of this review) from the relevant papers are identified and presented. In section 3 the key advantages of mixed species pasture (MSP) and individual components are listed along with areas of weakness and opportunities for further research.