Maintenance of Local Grazing Resources – BeiteRessurs

Considerable changes are taking place in agriculture in middle Norway; the number of farmers has declined rapidly and 8 600 ha farmland has been abandoned from production since 2005 in this region. Access to arable land/grassland is a limiting factor in sheep production, particularly in organic production. The use of grazing areas in spring and autumn are commonly at the expense of yield and quality of winter feed. Getting access to and using marginal cultivated areas for spring and autumn grazing could contribute to counteracting the decline in animal production based on grassland resources. However, if commercial farmers are to utilize cultivated marginal areas that otherwise would have been abandoned, factors like production, economy and animal welfare must be addressed. The government wants to increase the food production to serve the increasing population in Norway based on local resources, like grassland, all over the country. Further there is an awareness of the need to keep the marginal areas in use. This project is designed to meet these challenges with research-based knowledge. Our main aim is to investigate possibilities for maintaining cultivated, marginal grassland that would otherwise be abandoned while taking meat production and animal welfare into account. The results from the project will contribute to improved knowledge that will be useful for fulfilment of the objectives of the agricultural policy of increased food production in Norway.