Karen Enciso; Mauricio Sotelo; Michael Peters; Stefan Burkart 58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, July 10-14, Cartagena, Colombia

1. The inclusion of Leucaena
diversifolia in Colombian cattle
systems: An economic
perspective
Karen Enciso; Mauricio Sotelo; Michael Peters;
Stefan Burkart
58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical
Biology and Conservation, July 10-14, Cartagena, Colombia

2. Context, objective and methodology

3. The forage-based cattle sector
plays a key role in
and nutrition
security
FOOD
Alleviation
POVERTY
But it is also associated with causing negative environmental impacts:
degradation and
deforestation
LAND
pollution and
depletion
WATER
threatened
BIODIVERSITY DEFORESTATION
Livestock sector
Grazed livestock
systems are the
world’s single biggest
land use and a big
source of GHG
emissions
Annual contribution of
livestock to climate
change
8.1 Billion
tCO2 eq
of total
agricultural
emissions
of all human-
induced GHG
4.9 Bha
About two-thirds of the
world’s total agricultural area
Land use
Under climate change, livestock production systems
is adversely affected
WATER
threatened
BIODIVERSITY
ANIMAL
availability
Health, reproductive
sufficiency and
thermoregulation
FORAGE
Quantity and
quality

4. The forage-based cattle sector
plays a key role in
and nutrition
security
FOOD
Alleviation
POVERTY
But it is also associated with causing negative environmental impacts:
degradation and
deforestation
LAND
pollution and
depletion
WATER
threatened
BIODIVERSITY DEFORESTATION
Key messages
Grazed livestock
systems are the
world’s single biggest
land use and a big
source of GHG
emissions
Annual contribution of
livestock to climate
change
8.1 Billion
tCO2 eq
of total
agricultural
emissions
of all human-
induced GHG
4.9 Bha
About two-thirds of the
world’s total agricultural area
Land use
Under climate change, livestock production systems
is adversely affected
WATER
threatened
BIODIVERSITY
ANIMAL
availability
Health, reproductive
sufficiency and
thermoregulation
FORAGE
Quantity and
quality
In this sense, the main challenge for livestock farming in the tropics is to increase the efficiency of production systems,
mitigate environmental impact and advance efforts to adapt to climate change.
The challenges for livestock farming in the tropics include increase the
efficiency of production systems, mitigate environmental impact and
advance efforts to adapt to climate change.
Improvements in animal feeding and sustainable intensification are
the most promising strategies for mitigating these impacts
The inclusion of forage legumes in cattle production systems has the
potential to increase yield, efficiency and nutritional value of the
forage, with less environmental impact

5. Objective
To evaluate the profitability of including Leucaena diversifolia in the Colombian
cattle production system, in comparison with a grass monoculture.
T1) Leucaena diversofolia (2,000
plants/ha) + Urochloa hybrid cv. CIAT
BR02/1752 association
T2) Urochloa hybrid cv. CIAT BR02/1752
as a monoculture

6. Materials and Methods
Data source: Monthly field measurements
carried out by the International Center for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Palmira, Valle
del Cauca, Colombia.
• Conditions of an Inter-Andean Valley
• The animals were grazing under a
rotational design: 6 days of
occupation and 48 days of rest
• Treatment maintenance and renewal

7. Methodology: A discounted cash flow
model for the estimation of financial
profitability indicators and a quantitative
risk analysis (a Monte Carlo simulation)
Livestock system: beef cattle fattening,
Cebu half-blood steers
Treatment persistence:
T1 at 1% (S1), 3% (S2) and 8% (S3)
T2 at 1% (S4), 3% (S5), and 5% (S6)
Materials and Methods

8. Results and conclusions

9. Variable
T1 T2
(Mean ± SD) CV (%) (Mean ± SD) CV (%)
Carrying capacity
(UGG/ha)
4.04 3.36
Weight gain
(g/animal/d)
657± 73
11.2
440 ± 41
9.3
Animal
productivity
(kg/ha/y)
1078± 120 723± 68
Time to reach sales
weight (months)
12 18
Animal response data of the treatments
Results
Technical Considerations
In this sense, the main challenge for livestock farming in the tropics is to increase the efficiency of production systems,
mitigate environmental impact and advance efforts to adapt to climate change.
The inclusion of the legume allows in the production system:
• Increase carrying capacity by 20%
• Increase gain weigh per day and year by 49%
• Reduce fattening period by 33% (from 18 months to 12
months)
• Increase total biomass production per hectare by 152%
the protein content by 24%

10. Results
Parameter SSP Monoculture Percentual Change
Establishment of pasture (US$/ha/y0)1
849 704 20.5%
Pasture renewal (US$/ha)2
84 103 -18.3%
Electric fence (US$/ha/y)3
641 641 0.0%
Purchase of animals (US$/ha/cycle) 1,332 884 50.8%
Operational costs 2,077 1,619 28.3%
Pasture maintenance costs (US$/ha)4
77 86 -11.2%
Labor (US$ average/ha/y)5
617 601 2.6%
Animal health (US$ average/ha/y) 21 21 0.5%
Supplementation (US$ average/ha/y)6
73 73 0.5%
Gross income (US$ average/ha/y) 2,077 1,782 50.4%
Unit cost of production (US$/kg)7
1.05 1.23 -14.7%
Net income (US$ average/ha/y)8
621 183 239.1%
Summary of main costs and revenues for the treatments (2019 prices)

11. Decision criteria
SSP Monoculture
Sim 1 Sim 2 Sim 3 Sim 1 Sim 2 Sim 3
NPV_Mean 2,456 2,278 2,109 124 79 (31)
IRR_Mean 44.30% 42.78% 41.28% 15.40% 14.30% 11.50%
NPV_std 947 908 870 557 542 504
NPV_Min (1,532) (1,791) (1,790) (2,039) (2,024) (1,988)
NPV_Max 6,255 5,590 5,281 2,323 2,217 1,958
Prob (NPV <0) 1% 0.7% 0.8% 42% 45% 53%
Payback period (years) 2-3 2-3 2-3 5-6 5-6 5-6
Summary of main costs and revenues for the treatments
Results
Results-Key messages
In this sense, the main challenge for livestock farming in the tropics is to increase the efficiency of production systems,
mitigate environmental impact and advance efforts to adapt to climate change.
The inclusion of the legume allows in the production system:
• IRR increased by 207%
• Payback period reduced by two years
• An economic loss probability reduction of 97%.
• Dropping forage availability by 1% reduces IRR by 1.7% in
SSP and 4% in monoculture.
• Increasing of input prices by 30% reduces IRR by 12% in
SSP and 29% in monoculture.

12. Conclusions
• L. diversifolia has significant potential to increase
animal productivity and profitability.
• The inclusion of L. diversifolia comes along with a
reduction of the risk of economic loss and less
variance to changes in critical variables.
• This is key to encourage adoption, since farmers,
being naturally rather risk adverse, will most likely
favor technologies with a relatively lower variance.
• The establishment of grass-legume associations
should be accompanied by specific training and
extension programs, and financial resources.

13. Further reading
The inclusion of Leucaena diversifolia in a Colombian beef
cattle production system: An economic perspective
DOI: 10.17138/tgft(7)359-369
Economic benefits of sustainable, forage-based cattle
systems in Latin America
hdl.handle.net/10568/116195

14. Thanks!
Karen Enciso Valencia
k.enciso@cgiar.org