Forage biomass of different pasture management systems in Western Region of São Paulo State, Brazil
Description
The objective of this dataset was to present the forage biomass production over time in different pasture management systems. We selected two farms located in the Western region of São Paulo State, Brazil. Pasture field data collection was carried out in two farms during three dates (June and November 2018 and March 2019) over two seasons (wet and dry). Samples were regularly taken through time to monitor forage biomass. These fields represent a wide variety of pasture management, as follow: Farm 1 (Santa Clara): i) traditional, low forage productivity, cattle rotation; ii) traditional, intermediate forage productivity, fertilized, cattle rotation; iii) intensified pasture, high forage productivity, reformed, cattle rotation. Farm 2 (Poderosa): i) traditional degraded*, recently reformed with millet + grass, cattle rotation; ii) traditional, low forage productivity, signs of degradation, fertilized, cattle rotation. *degraded was based on visual analysis of pasture area with sparse grass and exposed soil in some areas. With the support of NDVI images from the MODIS sensor, sample pixels were used to allocate the sample points. The areas of these pixels were divided into nine sampling points and in each of these points, the forage biomass was collected. Soil analyses were also carried out in two seasons (June 2018 and March 2019). The data files were organized in three folders. Each folder represents one field campaign. These folders have a shapefile of all the fields, the same file in kml extension (to open on Google Earth) and a zip file with photography of each field during the field campaign. The attribute table of the shapefile has a description of the fields and biomass. Excel files show the same information of the attribute table and a description of the items. A figure with the template of the biomass collection scheme is also available. Soil analyses are in the folders 'June 2018' and 'March 2019'. A more detailed description and discussion about these data and their association with soil chemical analysis were described in a scientific report (available by request). The biomass collection allowed the analysis of the forage production and better diagnoses about resource utilization strategies over the different pasture systems. This work was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (process numbers 2018/10770-1, 2017/06037-4, 2016/08741-8, 2017/08970-0, 2018/11052-5 and 2014/26767-9) as part of the Global Sustainable Bioenergy Initiative.
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Biomass samples were collected based on the pixels location of NDVI images from MODIS sensor. The pixels were selected according to the fields with pasture under the different managements. In each selected pixel, the biomass was collected in nine points distributed according to a square drawing 0.5 x 0.5 meters (0.25 m² of area) and regularly spaced, where the total aboveground forage was extracted (Template_biomass_collection.pdf). The first field campaign (June 2018) had a visit to the location of 12 pixels on the two farms, totalizing the collection of 108 biomass sampling points. In the second biomass collection (November 2018), the sampling points were almost the same as the first collection, with some additional points and changes in the location of others according to current pasture management. Thirteen pixels were visited over the two farms, totaling 117 biomass sample points. The grass height was also measured in this second campaign in each sample point. In the third collection (March 2019), the sampling points were the same as in the second collection also including the grass height measurements. The forage biomass collected were placed in paper bags for transport. In the laboratory, they were separated in green biomass and dry biomass and weighed on a precision scale. They were then placed in an oven at 65 ° C for 72 hours and the dry matter weighed. The soil collections were performed in two seasons, the first in June 2018 (dry season) and the second in March 2019 (wet season) at depths of 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm. It was performed 3 composed samples of soil per pixel per depth. In each sample, macro and micronutrients and soil acidity levels were evaluated. In the first collection (June 2018), 72 soil samples were analyzed (36 samples from 0-20 cm and 36 samples from 20-40 cm). In the second collection (March 2019), there were some changes in the pixels of biomass collection and the same changes were adopted for soil collection, being analyzed a total of 78 soil samples (39 from 0-20 cm and 39 from 20-40 cm). The soil analyses were performed at the University of Oeste Paulista (UNOESTE). For more details about these data, please contact the authors.