Abstract
Small ruminant production is predominantly linked to the use of natural pastures; however the intensification process in past decades has led to a gradual abandonment of grazing and the prevalence of intensive patterns. This paper contributes to the discussion about the economic performance of small ruminant farms relative to the use of pastures. Using data from a sample of Greek sheep and goat farms it is shown that grazing does not necessarily increase economic performance. If not organized carefully, farms which graze more do not reduce their feeding costs or they counterbalance this reduction with increases labor expenses. An efficiency analysis of the sample using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) shows that farms which graze less are generally more efficient than the ones which graze more. Furthermore, the input-oriented DEA model reveals that the same level of output could be achieved with less a reduction of hours grazing by 12.5% and 11.9%, respectively for farms which graze less than 1800 h and more than 1800 respectively. It is concluded that a higher level of organization is required to render grazing a practice with positive economic impact on farms, including infrastructure for better accessibility of pastures, more efficient rations and training. This applies also to the framework for pasture use in Greece, as the delivery of Integrated Grazing Management Plans is expected to provide guidance and stability to small ruminant farmers.
Highlights
Grazing is the most important source to cover the dietary needs of livestock in extensive sheep and goat systems
Theimpact paper on explores the performance managerial and whether cost savings to grazing grazing has are acounterbalanced expenses. For this decisions of farmers under due which positive impact by on other economic performance reason, this paper presents the results of a small ruminant farm management survey in a and whether cost savings due to grazing are counterbalanced by other expenses
The Category 1 (C1) average farm (AF) fed higher quantities of forage per ewe/dam compared to Category 2 (C2) AF, while the opposite was found for concentrates
Summary
Grazing is the most important source to cover the dietary needs of livestock in extensive sheep and goat systems. The efficient management of grazing is a factor maximizing the competitiveness of livestock systems and the use of grasslands can contribute toward more sustainable livestock production in the long term [1]. Climate, species, floristic diversity, production system organization and other factors, small ruminants cover partially or fully their needs in natural pastures. The choice between confined and pasture-based ruminant systems has been discussed mainly for cows. Peyraud et al [1] outlined the prerequisites and actions to be undertaken to render grasslands the basis for more sustainable dairy systems, including innovations in forage production, livestock-specific and system-specific characteristics. Reijs et al [2]
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