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Do endangered sheep breeds have an advantage in organic farming?

Rahmann, Gerold (2006) Do endangered sheep breeds have an advantage in organic farming? In: Atkinson, Chris and Younie, David (Eds.) What will organic farming deliver?, AAB Office, Warwick, UK, Aspects of Applied Biology, no. 79, pp. 247-252.

[thumbnail of AAB06_Endangered_breeds.pdf] PDF - English
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Summary

Endangered breeds are not compulsory for organic farming, but adapted and local breeds are considered suitable for Organic Farming. In the year 2001, 240 ewes of six different breeds were introduced on the experimental farm of the Institute of Organic Farming in Trenthorst. Two were high yielding breeds, four older endangered German breeds. The whole herd was kept in one herd in a low input – low output system, comparable to agri-environmental schemes. The scientific programme was to follow the herd’s development in terms of health status, growth rate and product qualities.
After three lambing seasons, no real advantages could be found for the old breeds. Nevertheless, high yielding and old breeds did not show big differences in production and health performance. The result is, that even in low intensive organic farming systems, old and endangered breeds need financial support to be competitive with high yielding breeds.


EPrint Type:Conference paper, poster, etc.
Type of presentation:Paper
Keywords:sheep, rare breeds, Organic Farming, Germany, agri-environmental schemes
Subjects: Animal husbandry > Production systems > Sheep and goats
Animal husbandry > Breeding and genetics
Research affiliation: Germany > Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries - VTI > Institute of Organic Farming - OEL
Deposited By: Rahmann, Prof. Dr. Gerold
ID Code:9308
Deposited On:27 Sep 2006
Last Modified:12 Apr 2010 07:34
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

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