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 farm level. Our results reveal that value creation for locally produced beef in small-scale mountain farms, irrespective of beef production system, is currently too low to generate a positive operating result. Therefore, to improve the economic situation of beef production in such an environment and thus establish it as a viable alternative for small-scale mountain farming, cost saving strategies during production (e.g., cooperations between farmers for barn and machine sharing) on the one hand and well-defined production guidelines for guaranteeing the production of homogenous high-quality beef in combination with targeted marketing programs for improving value creation on the other hand are required. Furthermore, farmers should partly adapt present farming strategies to benefit from additional subsidies for sustainable production strategies (e.g., organic production, transhumance, pasture use, local breeds), which could further promote the socio-ecological functions of mountain farming.