Grassland Luxembourg
Grassland accounts for more than half of all agricultural land in Luxembourg. It is an important source of feed for livestock and holds significant ecological value.
Grassland – including meadows and pastures – is a defining feature of Luxembourg’s cultivated landscape, alongside arable land and woodland. A cultivated landscape is one shaped and maintained by human activity. Because of the country’s geography – low mountain ranges, high rainfall and heavy, hard-to-work soils – it is difficult in Luxembourg to achieve economically viable yields from arable farming and from vegetable production in particular. For this reason, permanent grassland accounts for more than half of Luxembourg’s agricultural land.
Permanent grassland is land that has been used for growing grasses, herbs such as yarrow and dandelion, or other forage crops like white clover and red clover for at least five years. Grassland serves as feed for cattle, including dairy cows, suckler cows and beef cattle, and is either grazed or mown. The harvested grass is preserved either as silage (sealed airtight in plastic wrap) or fully dried and stored as hay, providing a winter feed reserve.
Keeping livestock, especially ruminants like cattle and sheep, makes it possible to use grassland in an economically viable way. Grass has no direct value as food for humans, but these animals are able to digest and convert the energy-rich grass thanks to their special digestive systems. This allows grassland to be used for milk and meat production. In addition, grassland would gradually become overgrown and disappear if it were not maintained by livestock and the farmers who care for it.
When grassland is intensively managed, the farmer mows and harvests the grass up to five times a year. To do this, farmers need to fertilise the grassland accordingly to replace the nutrients lost from the soil. This results in high forage yields and energy-rich grass. When grassland is managed extensively, use of fertilisers and crop protection products is kept to a minimum. The grass is cut only once to three times a year, resulting in lower yields. However, these extensively managed grasslands are particularly valuable as habitats for a wide range of plant and animal species. Grassland areas make a vital contribution to preserving and enhancing biodiversity. They also store large amounts of carbon, making them important for climate protection as well.