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Agricultural economics

Roque O., Miéville-Ott V.

The market for meat from the Herens breed in the Valais. Prospects for the organisation of the supply chain

Few market studies have been undertaken of Hérens cattle meat and its development potential. Our paper highlights a situation of high demand and insufficient supply. Nearly half the volume produced is used for home consumption by the farmers, or sold through direct sales, whilst our survey shows that consumer demand and willingness to pay are…
Agricultural economics

Nemecek Th., Gaillard G., de Baan L.

EUROCROP: Research strategy for European arable farming

EUROCROP was a concerted action to develop a research strategy for European arable farming. Research institutes and various stakeholders drew up the main research priorities for individual arable crops and for six transversal elements: “farming systems”, “farm economics”, “outlets and markets”, “quality of agricultural products”, “environmental impacts” and “socio-economic issues”. The social relevance and priority…
Agricultural economics

Meier B., Giuliani G., Flury C.

Land tranfers and development of farm structures until 2007

Economies of scale can significantly improve the competitiveness of the Swiss agricultural sector. In order to understand the development behind the farm size structure, the underlying sub-processes of land transfers are examined in-depth. Each year, between 4 % and 5 % of the total utilised agricultural area are transferred due to the closing down or…
Agricultural economics

Reissig L., Ferjani A., Zimmermann A.

Increasing phasing out of organic agriculture – with an upward trend

Since 2004, the number of organic farms has been declining steadily contrary to the positive trend in demand. Between 2005 and 2007, 263 or 4.1 percent of organic farms were lost. An analysis of data from the Federal Office for Agriculture’s Agricultural Policy Information System (AGIS) shows that 2.0 percent of the farms converted from…
Agricultural economics

Ammann H., Brecht I., Albisser Vögeli G.

Comparison of wood-fired heating systems

The use of wood fuel for heat generation has been increasing steadily in recent years. Wood-fired heating systems do not only make economic sense for woodland owners; more and more often non-woodland owners are having their heat supplied by wood-fired power stations. Three output categories of wood-fired system were compared: 20, 60 and 100 kilowatt…
Agricultural economics

Mencarelli Hofmann D.

Economically sustainable apple farming

Which factors and strategies are effective for economically sustainable apple farming? On this research question the Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station (ACW) has conducted a representative survey in co-operation with the Fruit Union Swiss (SOV). This article summarizes the results about the IP producers. Data analysis shows that commercialisation, production costs and apple orchard size are…
Agricultural economics

Dux D., Matz K., Gazzarin C., Lips M.

Managing open grassland in the mountain area of Switzerland – what are the costs?

The visible tendency of Swiss farms to specialise and grow in size has not been without consequences for agriculture. Working time is an increasingly scarce commodity, whilst the incentive to farm low-yield, high-intensity land is decreasing. This has consequences for agriculture: the forest is reclaiming land that farmers have given up working, biodiversity is dwindling,…
Agricultural economics

Wolf D., Albisser Vögeli G.

Economicvalue of Bt maize is relative

The economic value of genetically modified, insect-resistant maize, also known as Bt maize, is relative. This is shown in a literature review carried out by Federal Research Station Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, in which experiences of the economic viability of Bt maize were collected from EU countries in which commercial cultivation is taking place. The results…
Agricultural economics

Lips M., Ulrich C., Ammann H., Steingruber E.

Repair factor and engine utilisation factor calculations

Two coefficients are important for the calculation of repair costs and machine costs. The repair factor gives the proportion of new value incurred as repair costs in the course of service life. Fuel consumption, and hence fuel costs, are calculated using the average engine utilisation factor. On the basis of an empirical study both coefficients…
Agricultural economics

Lauber S., Seidl I., Böni R., Herzog F.

Challenges for alpine pastures

Although the national research programme NRP48 “Landscapes and Habitats of the Alps” dealt intensively with the Swiss mountain area, rather less research had been devoted to the alpine pastures. Therefore, many open questions remained in this area.In a preliminary study, stakeholder interviews allowed identifying the standard of knowledge, current challenges for alpine pastures and open…
Agricultural economics

Gazzarin Ch., Lips M.

Milk Production: what characterises expanding farms?

La suppression des contingents laitiers en 2009 va entraîner un profond changement de la production laitière. Une enquête représentative a été réalisée en Suisse orientale afin d’étudier ce qui caractérise les exploitations ayant connu une forte croissance du contingent. Les résultats montrent qu’un lien positif existe entre la croissance connue dans le passé et l’intention…
Agricultural economics

Contzen S.

When income is no longer sufficient

Swiss farming families are under pressure as a result of developments in agriculture policies and the economy. For many of them, the income situation is unsatisfactory; some are even in precarious income situations. This article highlights the precarious situation of seven farming families. The reasons behind this precariousness are multi-layered and complex. Two basic patterns…
Agricultural economics

Schader C., Pfiffner L., Schlatter C., Stolze M.

Uptake of agri-environmental measures on organic and conventional farms in Switzerland

The willingness of farmers to adopt agri-environmental measures depends greatly on the farm type and management as well on the geographic conditions of the farm. The present paper analysed the differences in the uptake of agri-environmental measures between organic and non-organic farms. A statistical comparison based on the 2005 Swiss Farm Census showed that organic…
Agricultural economics

Mack G., Flury C.

Effect of summer pasturing payments

Summer pasturing payments are provided with the aim of ensuring the management and maintenance of summer grazing pastures. Calculations performed with the SILAS sector model show that these payments contribute decisively to transhumance, and hence to the management and maintenance of alpine pastures. Nevertheless, they cannot halt the trend of declining summer grazing of alpine…
Agricultural economics

Mann S.

What is land mobility all about?

Particularly farming groups often demand increased land mobility. This paper shows that increased land mobility can only be achieved under deteriorating agricultural policy conditions. As for the extent of land mobility, it is unimportant whether this process takes place via price reductions or decreased direct payments. It is possible, however, to in-crease land mobility via…
Agricultural economics

Moriz C., Lehmann B., Meier W.

Recording and Planning Farm-Management Tasks

Farm management tasks occupy a central position on farms. The data available in this area for planning purposes, however, corresponds neither quantitatively nor qualitatively to the importance of these tasks. Using the example of dairy farming, Reliable reliable planning datae are was developed using the example of dairy farmingfor these tasks. This study is based…
Agricultural economics

Sanders J., Stolze M., Offermann F.

The Swiss agricultural sector model CH-FARMIS

Future agricultural policy reforms will be a new challenge for Swiss agriculture. As a result of differences in competitiveness, it is expected that agriculture will be differently affected by a further agricultural liberalisation. In order to be able to conduct a highly differentiated policy impact analysis for specific groups of farms, the Research Institute of…
Agricultural economics

Krummenacher J., Maier B., Huber F., Weibel F.

Can agroforestry be economic? The analysis of a farm with longtime experience

In agriculture there is an increasing area of conflict between ecological and economical demands. An innovative approach that can fulfill requirements in a sustainable husbandry as well as in a competitive production is the agroforestry. On the basis of a case study conducted in Germany, we analysed how the profitability of an agroforestry system can…
Agricultural economics

Hug-Sutter M., Durgiai B., Schwarzenbach R.

Two major lines of impact for the milk value chain in mountainous regions

There have always been special requirements for agriculture in mountainous regions. Compared to plain areas an unequal evolution due to different potentials in production and changing demands of society can be observed. Traditionally dairy production was the most important sector of agriculture in most mountainous areas. As a result of environmental changes and the along…
Agricultural economics

Etter L., Schwarzenbach R.

Strategies for dairy manufacturing plants in Swiss mountainous areas

Clear and consequent implemented strategies for commercial dairy manufacturing plants in Swiss mountainous areas in a deregulated cheese market will become more important in the future. Due to demand trends of the market there are sound perspectives for the sale of premium quality and authentic cheese products. The plants participating in the mountain dairy project…
Agricultural economics

Durgiai B., Blättler T., Hug-Sutter M.

Strategies for dairy farms in mountain areas

In the dairy project in mountainous areas (�Mountain Milk�) ran by the Swiss College of Agriculture a farm-specific strategic planning process had been carried out with 49 dairy farms during four visits on each farm. The predicted results for a planning interval of ten years (2004 to 2013) are promising and motivating.The chosen strategies are…

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