agreste

Agreste cahiers n° 46 - décembre 1999

The diversity found among mountain-area breeding systems is due to a combination of factors : the particular mountain range, the economic orientation of the farm - cattle or sheep, dairy or meet productions - and to the size of the herds.

The diversity found among mountain-area breeding systems is due to a combination of factors : the particular mountain range, the economic orientation of the farm - cattle or sheep, dairy or meet productions - and to the size of the herds. With the exception of the largest dairy farms - cattle or sheep -, mountain breeders, on average, saw their incomes increase substantially, in real terms, between 1992 and 1996, a period corresponding to the introduction of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. It is above all the substantial rise in subsidies consecutive to the 1993 reform that explains this increase in mountain income. The special mountain grant (ISM) again constitutes, in 1996, almost half of bovine dairy farming aid, but barely a quarter for holdings with suckler cows or ewes, for which animal premiums predominate. Per farm the subsidies received are equivalent on flatlands or in mountain areas. But they weigh more heavily in the incomes of mountain zone breeders which remain below the level of flatland animal farming. The amount of the subsidies may be as high as the farming income. It may even be twice higher in holdings with suckler female.