Grazing livestock holdings in European union

Abstract

To understand the diversity of the European grazing livestock holdings and to evaluate the differential  impacts of agricultural policy reforms, a typology has been built on the basis of the data available in the European Farm Accounting Data Network (FADN). This typology, called GLS « Grazing Livestock Systems », is a product that could be used by the General Direction for agriculture of the European Commission. It proposes to divide grazing livestock holdings into several typological classes, having regard to the composition of the breeding herd and the categories of animals. The grazing livestock holdings are broken down homogeneously at the European level into four types of production, nine livestock systems and eighteen technical systems. This typology, which is complementary to the approach by types of farming, makes it possible to undertake a comparative study of the structures and economic results of holdings which have comparable systems in different countries or different regions of the European Union. In the context of rapid adjustment of the common agricultural policy to market, the GLS typology can contribute to a more in-depth analysis of the various effects of new agricultural policy measures on the livestock farming systems. The analysis of the main characteristics of the European farms according to the GLS typology enables to show the complexity of productive systems, the heterogeneous of farms structure (in terms of economical dimension, specialisation, intensification), the high contribution of dairy farms to meat supply and the important role played by direct support in the breeders’income.