A Systems Approach to Assessing the Viability of Grazing Legume Systems Across Europe

Forage legumes are important in grassland farming throughout much of the world because of their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, and hence they are expected to play an increasingly prominent role in low- input grazing farming systems in Europe. Nevertheless, the socio-economic impact of the adoption of the new legume based grazing technologies have been poorly researched (Rochon et al., 2004). Thus a methodology has been developed to: * Assess the on-farm costs and benefits of including different legume crops for animal production;* Determine the types of management systems and environmental conditions under which forage legumes may play a major part as grazing crops in production systems in Europe;* and Determine the wider social, economic and environmental implication of widespread adoption of the new technologies