Grass-Fed Cattle as an Option to Improve the Sustainability of Cattle Industry in Croatia

Abstract

In Croatia, as well as in many neighboring countries, neither the cattle farmers nor the general public (i.e., the consumers) are familiar with the meaning of the grass- fed cattle farming. This paper’s objective is to present what environmental and consumer-health benefits might arise from this way of cattle farming, along with the expected constrains regarding a lower productivity per animal and per the used land resources. The presented literature review has demonstrated that, when compared to the conventional TMR-fed cattle, the grass-fed feeding manner produces the cattle-derived foods with the greater consumer-related health benefits, has a potential to restore biodiversity in agricultural countryside, causes a lesser environmental pollution due to a lesser pesticide use, improves animal welfare and the beauty of a countryside landscape, decreases the farmers’ operating costs, consumes less fossil fuel per hectare of the utilized land, which is appreciated in climate policies, and has a potential to improve the cattle farmers’ resilience and independence from distant fossil fuels. The grass-fed foods are appreciated by the end-consumers who are willing to pay a price premium for such products. The projected feed and forage consumptions, along with the data on a grass-fed cattle productivity, have indicated a poorer conversion rate of feed DM to milk (1.433 vs. 0.756) and bodyweight gain (12.168 vs. 7.526) in the grass-fed cattle when compared to the TMR-fed, which implies that the grass-fed cattle would require much more land resources per product unit than the TMR-fed cattle. Further research is required to test the productivity of grass-fed cattle (per head and per hectare) in Croatian conditions, as well as to investigate the productivity of Croatian grassland resources.