Dairy sheep production systems at the central-north of Spain: limiting factors

Abstract

[EN] The information of this work was obtained from 80 surveys carried out to dairy sheep farmers at the province of León (Central-North of Spain) in November of 2006, with the aim to know the influence of next limiting factors: flock size, land use and human resources. For the total farms interviewed 24 are in the group of land use and human resources. For the total farms interviewed 24 are in the group of <350 wes, 34 at the group of 350 to 650 ewes and 22 to the group of high size > 650 ewes. The mean of sheep farmers age was 46 years and 87,5% of the farms are involved in the cooperative systems. The sheep farmers with succession are more in the groups medium (8) and high (8) that in the small (1) one. The 35% of the farms has a zero grazing management systems. The mean value of farm land is 43,2 ha of non irrigated land (3,76 ha/parcel) and 29,7 ha of irrigable land (3,91 ha/parcel). For the total farm, 11 are on non irrigated land, 20 are on irrigable, 44 are on both surface types and 5 don't possess territory.