Department of Sheep Husbandry and Grassland Management

The activity of the Department of Sheep Husbandry and Grassland Management is justified by the fact that in one third of the countryside there are saline soils that cannot be used for tillage at all, but can only be used as sheep pastures. Grassland research is aimed at increasing the usability of our self-breeding grass varieties and the yield of lawns and extending the growing season.

Our task is to examine the utilization possibilities of lowland areas conditionally suitable and unsuitable for arable crop cultivation with beneficial and environmentally protective grasslands and alternative plants, their environmental impact, and the development and presentation of environmentally friendly grassland usage methods that adapt to the ecological characteristics in educational and consulting sample areas.

Harmonizing to the changing economic conditions, the task is to explore and specify the possibilities of grassland management (e.g., reduction of input, increase of yield, etc.) which promote rational land use in accordance with the ecological and soil characteristics of grasslands in the Trans-Tisza Region. Our experiments aimed at increasing the capacity of extensive pastures to support animals in summer are important, as well as the development of procedures that solve the continuous maintenance of livestock on pastures during crop depressions of natural grasslands. In addition to grazing, the emphasis is expected to be increasingly on the environment, nature conservation, tourism, hunting, etc. it shifts towards ways of use that enforce priorities. These centre of gravity shifts should be modelled and investigated as soon as possible in research into the utilization of saline soils.

In the field of sheep research, the so-called in addition to assisted biotechnological tests (e.g., oestrus synchronization, embryo transfer, etc.), the infection process of sheep's endoparasites, which is a long-standing problem of the domestic sheep industry, is investigated.

Head of department:
Dr. István Csízi, senior research fellow, +36 59-5500-139, Csizi.Istvan@uni-mate.hu

Colleagues:

Dr. Csilla Erzsébet Bojté, assistant research fellow, bojte.csilla.erzsebet@uni-mate.hu
Dr. Krisztina Varga, assistant research fellow, +36 59-500-204, 122; Varga.Krisztina@uni-mate.hu
Gabriella Fúró, assistant research fellow, +36 59 500 360; Furo.Gabriella@uni-mate.hu

Ibolya Rácz-Németh, research assistant, Nemeth.Ibolya@uni-mate.hu