Abstract
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.