Opuntia as forage 63

OPUNTIA SPP. FOR FODDER AND FORAGE PRODUCTION

IN ARGENTINA:
EXPERIENCES AND PROSPECTS

Juan C. GUEVARA and Oscar R. ESTEVEZ

INTRODUCTION
Cactus is extensively used as an emergency livestock feed during times of extreme droughts, i.e. a kind of
“drought insurance” (Le Houérou, 1994), in arid and semi-arid areas of the world (northeast Brazil, Mexico,
southern Africa, USA, and the Mediterranean Basin).
Cactus plantations in Argentina have increased from around 90 ha in 1993 to 840 ha in 1997. Most of
the plantations are located in the Provinces of Tucumán (39%), Catamarca (22%), Santiago del Estero
(14%), La Rioja (12%) and Salta (10%) (Ochoa de Cornelli, 1997). Among the main traditional, current and
potential uses of cactus (Barbera, 1995), the consumption of fruits, fresh or processed in syrup, is the most
important in Argentina (Ochoa de Cornelli, 1997). Most of the cactus producers use cactus as an activity
complementary to their agricultural systems. Cactus production is very popular in smallholder operations,
where the cladodes are used as forage for cattle and goats (Ricarte et al., 1998), although mainly in winter,
when the water supply for livestock is limited (Ochoa de Cornelli et al., 1992).
A few studies and experiences have been reported on cactus as fodder and forage in Argentina. The
ecological productivity and the nutrient content of the cladodes (Braun et al., 1979), the current status of
plantations (Ricarte et al., 1998) and their productivity under different management practices (Reynoso et
al., 1998) have been studied for Opuntia ficus-indica L. f. inermis (Web.) Le Houérou in Los Llanos of
La Rioja Province.
Our studies with Opuntia spp. began in the Mendoza plain at the end of 1995 in response to the
suggestions of Le Houérou (1995a). The experiments comprised effect of fertilizers, irrigation and planting
distances on the above-ground biomass production (experimental work still in progress at time of writing);
evaluation of plant survival and production in marginal lands (Guevara et al., 1997); micropropagation of
O. ellisiana, material with low availability of planting stock (Juárez and Passera, 1998); and cold hardiness
of Opuntia species and clones (in progress). At the same time, the economic feasibilities of cactus plantations
for cattle (Guevara et al., in press) and goat production (Guevara et al., 1999) have been assessed.
This chapter summarizes the studies and experiences in Argentina on opuntia for forage production
and its prospects.

BIOCLIMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARID AND SEMI-ARID ZONES

Data from around 40 weather stations were classified (Le Houérou, 1999) based on two main indices: the
rainfall (R) to potential evapotranspiration (PET) ratio (R/PET), representing the water stress; and the
mean daily minimum temperature of the coldest month (m), representing the winter thermal stress. These
two criteria allowed the construction of the orthogonal matrix shown in Figure 8. The discriminating threshold

Juan C. GUEVARA and Oscar R. ESTEVEZ

Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas (IADIZA)

Mendoza
Argentina
64

values in the classification were:

Water stress
Sub-desertic zone: 0.06 < R/PET < 0.15 100 < R < 200 mm
Arid zone: 0.15 < R/PET < 0.33 200 < R < 400 mm
Semi-arid zone: 0.33 < R/PET < 0.50 400 < R < 600 mm
Winter thermal stress
R/PRT (%)
-5 < m <-3 Extremely cold winter
-3 < m <-1 Very cold winter
-1 < m < 1 Cold winter
1<m<3 Cool winter
3<m<5 Temperate winter

The weather stations were also classified according to the rainfall regimes: tropical (over 70% of
annual precipitation falling during the summer season); Mediterranean (over 70% of annual precipitation as
winter rains); and well balanced (between 40 and 60% of annual rainfall in winter).
The absolute minimum temperatures for most of the weather stations ranged from -5°C (La Rioja) to
-13.9°C (Chos Malal, Neuquén). The lowest temperatures recorded were -18°C (El Divisadero, Mendoza)
and -23.6°C (Malargüe, Mendoza).

R/PET (%) = 33
R/PET (%) = 15

50 20
41 12
21 32
16 40
40 1
19
39 29 Semiarid zone
17

30 22 36
37 38 23 25
15 4
24 18 2
30 28 14 6 31 7
20 26 33
27 35 9 34 13 Arid zone
5
3
10 8

11
10
Subdesertic zone
0
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

m ºC
 Opuntia as forage 65

KEY TO SITES

1 Santiago del Estero

2 Andalgalá

3 Tinogasta

4 Catamarca

5 Chilecito

6 La Rioja

7 Chepes

8 S.J.de Jachal

9 Punta del Agua

10 San Juan

11 Barreal

12 Villa Dolores

13 Mendoza

14 La Paz

15 El Divisadero

16 San Carlos

17 San Rafael

18 General Alvear

19 Malargüe

20 San Luis

21 Unión

22 Santa Isabel

23 Puelches

24 Chos Malal

25 Las Lajas

26 Cutral-Có

27 Cipoletti

28 Choele Choel

29 Río Colorado

30 Maquinchao

31 San Antonio Oeste 37 Gobernador Gregores

32 Carmen de Patagones 38 Puerto San Julián
33 Puerto Madryn 39 Puerto Santa Cruz
34 Trelew 40 Lago Argentino
35 Sarmiento 41 Río Gallegos
36 Comodoro Rivadavia

Figure 9. Location of weather stations in arid and semi-arid zones of Argentina

66

MAIN CONSTRAINTS FOR CACTUS PLANTATIONS

Temperature
Under different climatic conditions, the thermal limit for frost-sensitive species such as Opuntia ficus-
indica is indicated by an m of 1.5 to 2.0°C in the arid steppes of North Africa (Le Houérou, 1995b).
The authors’ observations from several species and clones established in the Mendoza plains suggest
that winter cold temperatures are the major limitation to cultivation of cactus in this area. When night
temperatures in El Divisadero dropped to -17°C in August 1999, the young cladodes from 9-month-old
plants of O. ficus-indica were almost destroyed, while the 3-year-old plants of O. ficus-indica,
O. spinulifera Salm-Dyck f. nacuniana Le Houérou, f. nov. and O. robusta Wend. had mean frost
damage of 25, 5 and 2%, respectively.
Experiments to evaluate forage production of the cold-hardy forage species O. ellisiana Griff.
and the cold-hardy clone #1233 (hybrid between O. lindheimeri Engelm. and some unknown parent)
have recently begun in the Mendoza plains. This material is being tested because O. ellisiana was not
damaged when temperatures at Kingsville, Texas, dropped to -12°C in 1989 (Gregory et al., 1993).
Furthermore, O. ellisiana experienced no damage and clone #1233 had only slight damage from this
freeze when temperatures of -20°C were recorded on a site located about 500 km north of Kingsville
(Wang et al., 1997).
According to Han and Felker (1997), the average water use efficiency (WUE) of O. ellisiana was
162 kg H2O per kg DM. This is among the highest WUE of any plant species measured under long-term
field conditions.
However, O ellisiana is a slower growing species compared to O. ficus-indica. In fact, the
productivity O. ellisiana/O. ficus-indica ratio ranged from around 0.35 (Han and Felker, 1997) to 0.5
(H.N. Le Houérou, pers. com.). Considering that the WUE measured for O. ficus-indica was 250-300
kg H2O per kg DM (Le Houérou, 1996a), the WUE of O. ficus-indica is about 55 to 85% lower than
O. ellisiana. Thus, we can assume that the lower productivity of O. ellisiana could be explained by its
higher transpiration ratio. Clone #1233, introduced by P. Felker at Santiago del Estero, has exhibited
high above-ground biomass productivity there (P. Felker, pers. com.).

Rainfall
Cactus and other drought-tolerant and water-efficient fodder shrubs (DTFS) can survive under rainfall as
low as 50 mm in a particular year, but with neither growth nor production (Le Houérou, 1994). Mean
annual rainfall of 100-150 mm corresponds to the minimum required to successfully establish rainfed plantations
of DTFS (Le Houérou, 1994), provided soils are sandy and deep (Le Houérou, 1996a). These limits can be
applied in the Mediterranean Basin, and North and South America (Le Houérou, 1994). Thus, cactus
plantations are eliminated from the arid (R/PET < 0.03; R < 50 mm) and hyper-arid (0.03< R/PET < 0.06;
50 < R < 100 mm) regions of Argentina.
Land tenure
Land tenure often constitutes a paramount constraint. The establishment of shrub plantations requires
long-term planning, relatively heavy investments and therefore land tenure security that provides possible
returns for such heavy investments. Land tenure and the control of livestock movements are therefore
prerequisites for shrub development (Le Houérou, 1996b).

ABOVE-GROUND BIOMASS PRODUCTIVITY

Soil texture and rainfall are the main factors related to productivity of O. ficus-indica (Table 29). On
sandy soils, productivity ranges from 2.1 to 2.4 t DM/ha/year in areas with 300 mm of rainfall. This
translates into mean rainfall-use efficiency (RUE) of 7.4 kg DM/ha/year/mm. These yield and RUE values
are lower than those in arid lands under mean annual rainfall of 200 to 400 mm on deep, sandy soils (3 to 9
t DM/ha/year and15 to 22.5 kg DM/ha/year/mm, respectively) when competition from native vegetation
 Opuntia as forage 67

and weeds was kept under control (Le Houérou, 1996a). The low yield from El Divisadero cactus
plantation is probably due to its unweeded condition, as they produced 300% less biomass production
than weeded plots (Felker and Russell, 1988). On silty sand soils, productivity reached only 0.75 t DM/
ha/year at a site with rainfall slightly higher than 200 mm, i.e. a RUE factor of only 3.5.

Table 29. Above-ground biomass production from Opuntia ficus-indica in Argentina

Mean annual Aboveground
Soil Spacing Plantation age
Site rainfall biomass production
texture (m) (years)
(mm) (t DM/ha/year)
Los Llanos (La Rioja) (1)
317 Sandy 3u3 5-7 2.4
(30º 22’S, 66º 15’W)
Los Llanos (La Rioja) (2)
317 n.a. 4u4 10 1.7
(30º 30’S, 66º 15’W)
El Divisadero (Santa Rosa,
294 Sandy 3u1 3 2.1
Mendoza) (3) (33º 45’S, 67º 41’W)
(3)
Mendoza
215 Silty sand 5u1 3 0.75
(32º 53’S, 68º 50’W)

Sources: (1) Braun et al., 1979. (2) Reynoso et al., 1998. (3) Present authors’ data. (4) n.a. = not available.

MICROPROPAGATION OF OPUNTIA ELLISIANA

O. ellisiana was multiplied from explants containing areolas using in vitro culture techniques (Juárez and
Passera, 1998). The sterilization procedure that showed the best results (only 12% areolas infected)
consisted of the immersion of the entire cladodes in sodium hypochlorite plus Tween 80, and then in
benzalkonium chloride solution.
Explants were cultivated in Murashige and Skoog culture medium, supplemented with sucrose and
different Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) concentrations, at 27±2°C, 100%
relative humidity and a 16-hour photoperiod. Explants in the medium containing 2.25 mg/litre BAP and
2.0 mg/litre IBA showed 100% shoot development in 35 days of culture. The mean shoot length was 10.2
mm after 49 days.
A 100% root induction in shoots was obtained in a medium with 5 mg/litre IBA after 12 days in
culture. The highest numbers of roots were obtained when the entire shoots were cultivated in a medium
supplemented with 5 mg/litre and 10 mg/litre IBA after 48 days of culture.
The acclimatization of in vitro regenerated plants was accomplished in a greenhouse and the plants
showed good performance when transferred to soil.

ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF FORAGE OPUNTIA PLANTATIONS

Cattle production
The economic feasibility of 50, 100 and 200 ha cactus plantations in the Mendoza plains was examined by
simulation models (Guevara et al., in press). Models were run with 200, 300 and 400 mm annual rainfall
and two management systems: cut-and-carry (CAC) for pen feeding, and direct browsing (DB). The study
was based on several assumptions related to spacing and density strategies, planting material availability,
yield and utilization schedule, nutrient content of the pads, composition of cattle daily ration, and opportunity
cost of prohibited grazing.
Two approaches were used to assign monetary values to the cactus feed and the range forage
forgone by livestock. In the first approach, the shadow prices were calculated using the regional prices of
metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) in concentrates (EP shadow price). In the second
approach, the authors assumed the shadow price to be the price of steer meat on the hoof at the producer
level (SM shadow price). This latter approach also assumed a conversion rate of 115.4 MJ of ME per
68

kilogram of liveweight gain (Le Houérou, 1989). Thus, the monetary values (US$ per tonne DM) were
95.4 (EP) and 66.3 (SM) for cactus and 102.2 (EP) and 59.4 (SM) for range forage production.
Information obtained through the establishment and monitoring of experimental cactus plantations in
the Mendoza plains was used to estimate the establishment cost (Figure 10). The values correspond to the
mean of the two shadow prices. This cost ranged from around US$ 1 490 (50-ha plantation; EP shadow
price) to US$ 850 (200-ha plantation; SM shadow price) in the CAC system, and from US$ 1 080 (50-ha
plantation; EP shadow price) to US$ 970 (200-ha plantation; SM shadow price) in the DB system.

Figure 10. Average establishment cost of cactus plantations in the Mendoza

plains according to plantation size and management system
(Source: Guevara et al. in press)

Using 12% as the capital opportunity cost and the shadow price of meat, cactus production was
found to be feasible in DB systems with 300 mm rainfall on a 100 ha plantation and with 400 mm rainfall on
a 50 ha plantation; and in the CAC systems with 100-200 ha plantations and 400 mm rainfall (Figure 11).

Figure 11. Internal rates of return (IRRs) from cactus plantations in the Mendoza plains according to
plantation size, rainfall and management system (Source: Guevara et al., in press)
 Opuntia as forage 69

The economic analysis did not take into account the secondary benefits mentioned by Le Houérou
(1994, 1996a), such as runoff and erosion control, climate buffering, increased land fertility, landscaping and
amenities, stabilization of animal production and reduction in the cattle water requirement. This resulted in
a very large underestimation of the economic impact of cactus plantations.
Without the incorporation of cactus plantations, the cow-calf operation size necessary to yield positive
returns in the Mendoza plains was estimated to be 37 500 ha (Guevara et al., 1996). If a 3-year cactus
production accumulation and a daily consumption of 36 kg of fresh cactus material per animal unit (AU)
were assumed, the cactus plantation required to feed all the cattle (1580 and 2270 AU in areas with 300 and
400 mm rainfall, respectively), for the entire year in this cow-calf model would be about 0.3% of the ranch
size. This cactus plantation would increase the current ranch investment by 7 to 10% (Guevara et al.,
1996).

Goats for meat production

The study addressed small-scale stockmen (50-200 does), located in areas with mean annual rainfall below
200 mm (Guevara et al., 1999). Their goat production systems have the following characteristics: (i) goats
are basically fed on rangelands, (ii) most of the goats kid in the dry season (autumn-winter), when the
forage on offer is insufficient to meet the nutrient requirements for goat lactation; and (iii) there is high kid
and doe mortality as a consequence of the feed deficit in this period.
A simulation model examined costs and benefits derived from the introduction of cactus plantations
into these goat production systems. Several scenaRíos were generated by varying the goat herd size (50,
100, 150 or 200 does) and the annual rainfall probability (f) from 0.1 to 0.9.
The assumptions were, in general, the same as those described earlier. However, some particular
aspects were included in the study. Cactus plantations could be established in bare areas near settlements
of the herders where no grazing currently occurred due to overgrazing and wood extraction. Herbaceous
vegetation, which could grow in the inter-row alleys, was scarce and therefore the opportunity cost of
prohibiting grazing in the cactus plantation was not considered. Only 10% of the wages were included as
goat herder opportunity cost. The method of management proposed was cut-and-carry.
This type of management is recommended for areas in which there is insufficient grazing discipline
and therefore a high risk of cactus plantation destruction (Le Houérou, 1989).
A decrease in doe annual mortality from 10 to 2% and an additional annual amount of kids per goat
were considered as the direct benefits derived from the reduction of forage deficit in the autumn-winter
period. An external benefit was the reduction of water consumption by goats in terms of the monetary
value of the labour not used for obtaining water.
Figure 12 shows the establishment cost of cactus plantations for three selected rainfall probabilities.
Costs ranged from US$ 525/ha (50-head goat herd; f 0.1) to US$ 242/ha (200 head goat herd; f 0.9). The
cost of establishment could be considered high and not all the stockmen could afford such investment. The
cost of installing the fence, the main item of the establishment cost in most of the scenaRíos analysed, could
be reduced if thorn hedges were considered. Thorn bush fences could be established for only 40% of the
cost of metal fence (Le Houérou, 1989). A fence made of a double row of spiny cactus at a distance of 1
m and a space of 1 m between plants should be established at least two years before cactus planting (Le
Houérou, 1989).
The annual additional amount of kids required to reach an internal rate of return (IRR) equal to the
opportunity cost of capital (12%) is shown in Figure 13. This amount increased as annual rainfall probability
increased, i.e. as cactus production decreased. An annual additional amount of 0.2 kid per goat seems
possible in practice because of supplementing goats with spineless cactus. In a 50-head goat herd, the
threshold of 0.2 kids is reached at f 0.5. The same number of kids is attained at f 0.7 to f 0.8 in 150- and
200-head goat herds.
70

If dependable rain (f 0.8) is considered, the additional kids per goat required to reach 12% IRR
would range from 0.21 to 0.29 for 200- and 50-goat herd size, respectively. Further research is needed to
establish, under field conditions, the actual additional amount of kids that might be obtained as a consequence
of supplementing goats with spineless cactus in the dry season.

Figure 12. Total costs of cactus plantation establishment and fence installation cost in the
Mendoza plains, for three annual rainfall probabilities (f) and four goat herd sizes
(Source: Guevara et al., 1999)

Figure 13. Annual additional amount of kids per goat required to reach 12% IRR in the
Mendoza plains according to annual rainfall probability and goat herd size
(Source: Guevara et al., 1999)
 Opuntia as forage 71

PROSPECTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Cactus plantations could be successfully developed in most of the arid and semi-arid zones of Argentina,
provided frost-tolerant species or clones were used. The trials that have been carried out indicate that
O. spinulifera Salm-Dyck and O. robusta are the most frost-tolerant species and hence the most promising
for cactus forage production programmes.
The establishment cost of cactus plantations appears to be high and out of reach of most ranchers
and graziers. Intensive research and extension efforts are needed to make cactus plantations more attractive
to them in terms of feed value, their role as “drought insurance” and economic benefits, and in particular
reducing the cost of establishment. At the same time, government should consider appropriate incentives
and legal tools favouring security of land tenure.
The system applied in Tunisia for Acacia saligna and in Syria for Atriplex halimus (Le Houérou,
1996b) could be adopted in Argentina. It is based on the planting of state-controlled land. Such plantations,
usually fenced and excluded from stock, are opened to graziers on a temporary basis, subject to payment of
a grazing fee, under the control of the Forest Service, who decides on the time of plantation use, on the
number of animals admitted and on the fee per animal/day to be paid.
Furthermore, in Tunisia, there are legal incentives for fodder production development. These incentives
include state assistance through loans, when economically justified, for establishing fodder shrub plantations,
in particular using spineless cacti, saltbushes and acacias (Le Houérou, 1996b).