Adaptive strategies of dairy farmers in mountainous areas of Algeria

Abstract

Dairy production can constitute a major part of family incomes in the mountainous area of Kabylia. Our study aimed to characterize the cattle farming systems of this area, as well as cattle management and adopted strategies. Following a previous study on 97 farms, we monitored 17 farms from March 2012 to February 2013. Three types of farms were identified: i) small farms (< 8 livestock units [LUs] on average) mainly producing meat (‘meat’ type); ii) medium farms (12 LUs) mainly producing milk (‘dairy’ type); and iii) large farms (> 46 LUs) with milk and meat production (‘mixed’ type). Concentrate feed was used all year round with an average of 8 kg/cow/day for the first two types, and up to 11 kg/cow/day for the third type. The annual milk sale per cow was about 3000 kg for the meat type, and 4000  kg for the dairy and mixed types. The incomes of specialized farms (meat or dairy) were similar (less than 400,000 Algerian dinars [DZD] per year, i.e. 3896  €), whereas the mixed type generated incomes over 3  million DZD per year, i.e. 33,139 €). Results showed that the adopted strategies strongly depended on the farmers’ ability to secure endowments. It helps understand better the current dynamics of livestock systems in mountainous areas, according to their strengths and weaknesses.