Hinder och möjligheter för ökad naturbetesdrift ur ett lantbrukarperspektiv: en kunskapsöversikt

This knowledge overview is commissioned by the government cooperation CAP & Sustainability with the mission to, from a farmer’s perspective, highlight obstacles and possibilities for increased grazing with sheep, cattle and horses on Swedish semi-natural grasslands. The term semi-natural grassland includes all forms of natural and previously cultivated forage land, including forest grazing and other outlying areas that can be grazed. Scientific articles and popular scientific literature on the topic have been compiled, information from a number of stakeholders has been gathered and the authors own competence and experience used.Keeping grazing animals on semi-natural grassland is an agricultural operation influenced by many factors, on many different levels, which displays complex interconnections. Some of them are closely affiliated to the actual grazing land, such as fencing, supplying drinking water and daily supervision of the animals, or the presence of predators. Others affect more indirectly, such as the availability of winter housing, the farm business economy, the attitude to farming in the society at large, governmental rules and regulations etc.From a grassland perspective, the goal is maintaining good grazing management in combination with efficient fencing, water and animal supervision methods, to achieve high levels of animal production and -welfare. Creating large connecting grazing paddocks, possibly also in combination with cooperative winter housing facilities and using present and future technology, are some of the possibilities to rationalize grazing operations and making them economically sustainable. There are possibilities to receive economic support to restore grazing lands with potential for high nature values. Governmental approval of virtual fencing systems would make it possible to graze semi-natural grasslands that are deemed too expensive to fence at present. Other new technology for supervision of both animals and fences are being developed. Semi-natural grasslands are nutritionally well suited to most horses but the distance between owner/user and grazing areas can be an obstacle. Loose dogs that worry livestock, predator attacks and crop damage by wild animals such as wild boar, deer and geese, can present considerable obstacles for grazing operations in certain areas.A sustainable business operation needs long term economic viability. In semi-natural grazing-based beef- and lamb production, 10 % of the revenue consists of agri-environmental payment for management of grasslands, 30-45 % other agri-environmental support and 45-60 % sales of carcasses and skins. The production costs distribute at 50-60 % on winter housing (investment support not included), 15-30 % on grazing, and 15-30 % on shared expenses. A healthy Swedish animal sector is a prerequisite also for sustainable semi-natural grazing farmers, since the grazing animals used on these farms are not isolated from other animal production, but indeed exists in a constant flow between different types of livestock farms. Neither is the potential in numbers of grazing animals a constant, but an effect of how beneficial the conditions for livestock farming is in general. A more holistic view is needed, not just with regards to the animals, but also for the maintenance of the grazing. A singular seminatural grazing area with high nature values should not be considered as an isolated item. It needs to be seen as part of an economic business venture, where access to large connecting grazing paddocks, albeit with lower nature values, combined with grazing on aftermath on additional farmland, will enable a livestock operation and hence potential for grazing on the smaller core value areas. It is also of utmost importance that the support payed for maintaining high nature value grazing will benefit the grazier directly and does not become capitalized in the form of high land prices and tenancy fees.The largest improvement in the short-term economic calculus for operations using semi-natural grassland can be achieved if existing buildings, with no alternative use, are available for winter housing. In the long term this type of production must be able to carry the cost of new buildings in order to be economically sustainable. There is often an opposite relationship between a cheap building and low labour requirement. Winter feed costs are dependent on the physical layout of the silage/hay leys, resulting in higher feed costs in the forested areas where leys are often small and irregularly shaped. Farm operations with a high number of animals achieve economies of scale, resulting in lower production cost per animal. The farm revenue can be increased further by improved efficiency and by realisation of product added values connected to the semi-natural grasslands. Dairy replacement heifers are often kept on semi-natural grasslands. With a larger portion of contract-rearing of these heifers and letting them out on grazing at a lower age, even more semi-natural grasslands could be used by dairy animals.Another basis for a viable farm operation, using semi-natural grazing, is that the farm is situated within a living rural community, with possibilities for housing and services, and with an understanding for animal production and a positive attitude to farming as a whole. In such areas there are good basic conditions for cooperation, knowledge transfer, general service and trade of goods and services within the industry. Obstacles can be found in the attitudes of the urban population towards farming and the rural community, and indeed also within the rural community itself. One expression of this is the large proportion of rural youngsters who move to the cities, fulfilling the urban norm.This migration complicates both knowledge exchange and generation- and ownership transfers. The internal attitude among farmers towards whether nature conservation can be seen as a part of the farming operation, and business model, also varies greatly.Production of public goods, such as maintaining semi-natural grasslands, demands that the customer, i.e. the society at large, is willing to pay for the service. In spite of the large societal interest in maintaining semi-natural grasslands, only 10 % of the average revenue for a semi-natural beef- or lamb operation consists of agri-environmental payment for grasslands. Hence, this type of farming operation is dependent also on the consumers’ willingness to pay for Swedish produced meat. Horse owners also need economic incentives to keep their animals on semi-natural grasslands.The uncertainty and lack of long-term stability in the EU agriculture support system discourages investments in existing animal production businesses and new establishments alike. Even small changes in the support system can strongly affect individual businesses. Changes in the support system structure and regulations should therefore be minimized, whilst an increase in the support amounts within the existing system would have a positive effect. Far reaching and ambiguous regulations combined with disproportionate sanctions for livestock farmers leads to liquidation of businesses. A desirable change in development would be a construction of more flexible regulations and a support system that can take biological conditions into account, such as annual variations due to weather changes.Knowledge about farming and animal husbandry amongst the government control professionals is requested. The attitude amongst some government personnel and animal rights activists lowers the motivation of the farmer to keep livestock. A greater understanding for semi-natural grasslands and landowning issues within authorities dealing with farm- and forest properties, for instance during property forming, would be of importance for maintaining semi-natural grasslands.Our conclusion is that the maintaining of semi-natural grasslands is totally dependent on the possibility to exist as a grazing-based livestock farmer. Life on the farm must be functional, with all that it entails, but the largest obstacle for increased production on semi-natural grassland is the lack of profitability. The profitability can be improved, through increased revenue from adequate prices for animal products and an increase in relevant agri-environmental payments, but also through a decrease in cost of winter housing, feed and labour for grazing-based livestock production. All the factors above need to be improved simultaneously in order to markedly increase the interest in maintaining semi-natural grasslands.