Challenges and future perspectives of different organic beef cattle farms of Southern Europe

Summary

The livestock sector must be redesigned in order to achieve food security sustainably. Several authors have argued that organic farming may contribute positively in this sense. However, the externalities of the organic livestock systems are influenced by several factors. Due to this, the aim of this paper is to shed light on the needs and perspective of the organic beef cattle farms located in the 'dehesa' ecosystem (SW Spain). For this purpose, we created the 'Feasibility of Success Index' (FSI) by using indicators that took into account the context of the extensive livestock systems located in the Mediterranean basin. Two groups of organic farms were analyzed: farms that sold calves at weaning age a conventional ones (Organic); farms that fattened and sold their calves as organic (Organic 2). These groups were compared to the Conventional farms, in order to facilitate the understanding of the situation of the organic farms. For the assessment, the MESMIS approach was used. The results showed that the Group 2 showed an advantageous position (FSI=61.53%). The Organic 1, despite showing a lower external dependence, they also showed low economic and productive results (FSI=56.59%). Finally, the Conventional farms scored the highest for the productive and economic indicators. However, they scores the lowed in the FSI (54.46%). In general terms, all three groups must improve in certain common aspects that are crucial in the current and future context of the beef cattle sector: reducing the dependence on external feedstuff, the dependence on subsidies, the bargaining power, and the business diversification.