Case study on the economic perspectives of small Alpine beef cattle farms for assessing the future development of beef production in mountain regions

Beef production could become an interesting alternative for dairy farmers in mountain regions. Especially small-scale farms are often managed as a side-line activity and therefore require a more flexible and less work intensive production system than dairy production. The aim of this study was to analyse the economic situation of two common beef-production systems in a mountain region, namely suckler to beef system and calf to beef system in form of heifer and/or steer fattening for providing relevant information about the economic feasibility and potential of those alternatives. A detailed economic analysis of 33 farms with different beef production system (19 suckler to beef farms and 14 heifer/steer fattening farms) was performed on...