Sustainable management of equine pasture manure: remote sensing applications for latrine area mapping

• Grant number: 25/14143-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Roberta Ariboni Brandi
• Grantee: Roberta Ariboni Brandi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Adriano Rogério Bruno Tech ; Cristiane Gonçalves Titto ; Júlio Cesar de Carvalho Balieiro ; Tamara Maria Gomes ; Valdo Rodrigues Herling

Abstract

The use of appropriate manure management practices and digital tools, such as remote monitoring, in equine husbandry can reduce the impact of environmental pollution, maximize pasture utilization, and improve horse welfare and health. This project aims to evaluate two manure management strategies (1-feces spreading; 2-feces removal) in equine pastures regarding: (1) latrine area; (2) forage mass production, voluntary intake, and digestibility; (3) feeding behavior; (4) identification and quantification of latrine areas through remote monitoring; and (5) environmental pollution. Five horses will be used, kept on Vaquero grass pasture, divided into 0.2 ha paddocks in a rotational grazing system. Horses will access the pasture when it reaches 25 cm in height and will be removed when it reaches 12 cm. Forage mass will be determined using the direct method; latrine area will be assessed through remote sensing and on-ground mapping; voluntary intake and digestibility will be estimated using the LIPE® internal marker and predictive equations; animal health will be monitored via weighing, body condition scoring, and fecal egg count (FEC); feeding behavior and soil gas fluxes (methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide) will also be evaluated. A completely randomized design with repeated measures in the paddocks will be used. Soil memory will be assessed as a binary variable, and grazing behavior will be evaluated by frequency of occurrence. (AU)