Generic Relationships between Field Uses and Their Geographical Characteristics in Mountain-Area Dairy Cattle Farms

In mountain farms, challenges posed by the degree of land slope, altitude and harsh climate further compound multiple other possible constraints, particularly in relation to the distance of the farm from the farmstead. This study focused on how mountain-area dairy farmers factor the geographical cha...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Agriculture (Basel) 2021-09, Vol.11 (10), p.915
Main Authors: Sibra, Cécile, Brunschwig, Gilles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Altitude
Animal lactation
Cattle
Dairy cattle
Dairy farming
Dairy farms
Data collection
Decisions
Farmers
Farms
field use
Geography
grass-fed livestock system
Grasslands
Grazing
Life Sciences
Livestock
Livestock farming
Management decisions
Massifs
Milk
mountain area
Mountains
on-farm survey
Questionnaires
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In mountain farms, challenges posed by the degree of land slope, altitude and harsh climate further compound multiple other possible constraints, particularly in relation to the distance of the farm from the farmstead. This study focused on how mountain-area dairy farmers factor the geographical characteristics of their fields into their field-use decisions. To that end, we surveyed 72 farmers who farm the traditional Salers breed of cattle and 28 specialised dairy system farmers in the central Massif region, France. Information was collected on the uses and geographical characteristics of all grassland fields (n = 2341) throughout the entire outdoor grazing season, without identifying farmers’ rationales for their field-use decisions. Field-use classes were constructed for the traditional Salers system per group of fields (grazed-only, cut-only, grazed-and-cut) and then used to classify fields in the specialized dairy system. The geographical characteristics, which were associated afterwards, were significantly different between the field groups and between field-use classes. Grazed-only fields were found to be more sloping and cut-only fields were smaller and further from the farmstead. Distance/area combinations were different according to field use (animal category, earliness of first cut, grazing and cutting sequence) and were decisive for all field-use classes. This study allowed the identification of generic relationships between field uses and their geographical characteristics in mountain-area dairy cattle farms.
ISSN:2077-0472
2077-0472
DOI:10.3390/agriculture11100915