Grassland Ecosystem: Grasses and other unwanted species

In the livestock agroecosystems to achieve a high productive efficiency, an adequate diet is required, to maintain the productivity of the system grazing becomes the best option, therefore, to be an excellent it is necessary to be a great farmer first to maintain the cultivated areas with quality pastures and for that a series of agronomic practices must be implemented among which are the control of unwanted plants known as weeds to avoid that there is an interspecific competition that affects the quality of the pastures.

When cultivated areas with grasslands are observed, they are usually species of grasses that have been planted by producers or have proliferated naturally in areas intended for grazing, but in these ecosystems plants also begin to appear that can limit the yield of the forage crops present, among the plant species that appear in these spaces some of herbaceous, semi-woody and woody consistency can be observed which depending on their characteristics can make their control difficult.

n fact, these plants are known as weeds or as weeds, since they develop on the same surface and can compete with grasses for water, light and nutrient absorption, and can cause considerable economic damage if there is not a good management on them. In this regard, authors such as Gutiérrez and Medrano (2013), pointed out that the definition of weeds assigned to these plant species is more associated with the economic and non-biological component, because it is attributed an effect on reducing the yield of biomass usable by animals, which increases production costs in the control and therefore decreases economic benefits.

That is why a low percentage of weeds should be maintained in pasture establishments, in order to be more efficient and offer the animals quality grass that meets their nutritional needs. Likewise, Londoño (2012), pointed out that in countries such as Venezuela weed control is not carried out in an integrated way due to ignorance of the morphological and ecological aspects of it, bringing this the use of chemical controls, especially prohibited products due to their toxicity, which are causing various damages to agricultural agricultural systems. For his part, Gutiérrez et al (2013), mentions that in order to achieve optimal weed control, strategies should be planned and established, which will help us to evaluate and identify them in an efficient way and control their presence in the pastures, as well as a good management of the paddocks, do not allow said plants to occupy more than 10% of the pasture surface.

In the same vein, Villaseñor and Espinosa (cited by Flores and Márquez, 2017), state that in the state of Zulia Venezuela, there are not enough botanical collections, on the contrary, the identification is mainly carried out in a comparative way, through illustrations from books, manuals and brochures, coming from different geographical areas, for which it becomes indispensable, that the characterization of unwanted species, because there are not enough herbariums and bibliographic materials from the different areas of the state that contribute to identifying them.

Dear readers, in the southern area of Lake Maracaibo Venezuela, which is the geographical area where we are, some production systems are completely infected by high weed populations due to their poor management. According to Quintero (quoted by Flores and Márquez (2017), they state that weeds in the Southern Area of Lake Maracaibo are responsible for 15% of crop losses, especially in the production of pastures, causing economic losses.

In that sense, our Municipality Colón is characterized by being a livestock farming area, whose production systems are dual-purpose and there are problems that affect the productivity and quality of pastures, highlighting especially the abundant presence of non-fodder species, which cause severe damage and economic losses, being a cause of concern for producers due to lack of knowledge, which they try to control and sometimes do not get a good result, by making a bad management on them, which brings as a consequence the increase in the cost of handling and production, for not making a previous evaluation before controlling them. Therefore, it is important to identify, classify and characterize the forage and non-forage species present in these agroecosystems and with this information to be able to establish adequate controls of unwanted plants.