Effects of free-range broiler production on vegetation characteristic and soil physicochemical property of the stocking
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Effects of free-range broiler production on vegetation characteristic and soil physicochemical property of the stocking areas in China Chunlin Yu . Xiaosong Jiang . Huarui Du . Qingyun Li . Zengrong Zhang . Mohan Qiu . Tianbao Chen . Bo Xia . Xiaoyan Song . Chenming Hu . Xia Xiong . Li Yang . Han Peng . Jialei Chen . Chaowu Yang
Received: 18 February 2019 / Accepted: 6 August 2019 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Free-range broiler production is an effective combination of ecological and economic benefits which should be further standardized. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of free-range broiler production on ecosystem by measuring the changes in vegetation characteristics and soil physicochemical properties under different stocking densities. A natural meadow with rich biodiversity was created and further divided into three groups. The broilers were reared in door and provided range access around 6 to 22 weeks of age with two different densities, 600 and 1200 broilers/ha. The vegetation characteristics and soil physicochemical properties, such as total coverage, soil nutrition and pH value, were measured at the beginning and the end of stocking. The results showed that the vegetation characteristics and soil physicochemical properties changed significantly after free-range stocking. The dominant plants, total coverage, richness index,
C. Yu X. Jiang H. Du Q. Li Z. Zhang M. Qiu T. Chen B. Xia X. Song C. Hu X. Xiong L. Yang H. Peng J. Chen Sichuan Animal Science Academy, Chengdu 610066, Sichuan Province, China C. Yu C. Yang (&) Animal Breeding and Genetics Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Animal Science Academy, No.7, Niusha Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu 610066, Sichuan Province, China e-mail: [email protected]
diversity and biomass above-ground of treatment groups illustrated a considerable difference comparing with those in control group, and the indicators of soil physicochemical properties in treatment groups increased remarkably except the pH value. The present study demonstrated the higher stocking density would cause a more serious destruction of vegetation characteristics and modification of soil physicochemical properties, which suggested that an even lower stocking density or an alternative management such as rotational grazing could be a better choice for freerange broiler production. Keywords Chinese chicken production Natural meadow Stocking density Ecosystem
Introduction The free-range broiler production is an effective combination of ecological and economic benefits. Based on the utilization of natural resources such as woodland, orchard, grassland and barren hills, chickens ingested range components in the form of vegetation, insects, stones and grit, which offered various of nutrition and were proved to be acceptable for them (de Almeida et al. 2012; Singh et al. 2017). With advantages on the animal welfare, performance of chickens, the flavor and nutritional value of
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