chapter 2 extensive livestock farming – an alternative form of

Chapter 2 Extensive Livestock Farming –an Alternative Form of NatureConservation Management?

� Harald Plachter

2.1 Initial Situation

2.2 Extensive Grazingwith Local Livestock Breeds

2.3 Effects at Different Spatial Levels

2.4 Economic Analyses

2.5 Working Hypotheses

2.6 Focal Points in this Book

Chapter 2

Extensive Livestock Farming –an Alternative Form of Nature Conservation Management?

Harald Plachter

2.1Initial Situation

Our knowledge about the effects on nature in temperate climate zones of livestockgrazing and the grazing of breeds and species of animals similar to livestock has im-proved a lot in the last few years (see e.g., Beinlich and Plachter 1995; Finck et al. 2004;Redecker et al. 2002). However, several consistent problems have to be considered inthe appraisal of the available studies:

1. The duration of almost all of the projects has until now been too short to allow fora sufficiently long-term assessment of ecological consequences. In many cases, short-term results say very little about long-term effects. In particular, it must remainopen as to how large can be the formative influences on the development of woodyspecies (cf. Seifan and Kadmon 2006; Weber and Jeltsch 2000).

2. It is obvious that not just the local combination of site factors, but also the biologicalpreconditions of the area have significance for the type and extent of effects. Thereare here a wide range of studies from various parts of the world, particularly con-cerning the effects on vegetation (e.g., Adler et al. 2001; Cingolani et al. 2003; Hunt-ley 1991; Milchunas et al. 1988). However, corresponding works in Europe are untilnow largely absent.

3. Most of the studies were carried out under the constraints of research projects.Specific cost factors applying to ‘normal operations’ are not incurred and otheradditional costs arise only through the experimental design. There is a lack of re-alistic economic accounting of the costs as well as robust data covering the market-ability of the product (in the case where this may be desired).

4. There is a lack of data on the extent to which most of the variables in existing ag-ricultural enterprises can be integrated. Where this is not given, the practical appli-cability is seriously limited to projects initiated and financed by nature conserva-tion institutions themselves. It is also unclear as to what extent in particular, semi-wild forms of husbandry would be acceptable by the farmers themselves.

2.2Extensive Grazing with Local Livestock Breeds

A number of works in the last few years have supported the concept of a semi-wild orwild herbivore husbandry, mostly concerning wild animals (deer in enclosures, bison)or ‘primitive’ domestic breeds or ‘bred-back wild forms’ such as Heck cattle and Exmoor

30 Chapter 2 · Extensive Livestock Farming – an Alternative Form of Nature Conservation Management?

ponies (Bunzel-Drüke 2004; Kampf 2002; Sonnenburg and Gerken 2004). Anotherstarting point for the application of grazing animals in nature conservation is the useof already existing local livestock breeds, but in different husbandry forms optimizedto benefit nature conservation objectives (Hochberg and Finke 2004). Against the dis-advantages of the reduced naturalness of the system with respect to semi-wild hus-bandry, there are advantages in the ease of integration into agricultural enterprisesand the better marketability of the animal product.

Against the use of ‘normal’ livestock breeds as management measures in natureconservation, there are reservations that the particular species or breed would not beable to fulfill their functions necessary for an effective and targeted control of naturedevelopment, with respect to their living requirements and behavior. However, a closerexamination of the facts shows that such conclusions are always based finally on ‘mod-ern’ husbandry forms and not on the breeds as such. The present-day, extremely lim-ited grazing management systems are however neither comparable with the historicalsituation, nor do they adequately allow for the possible behavior spectrum of the live-stock which could be achieved under other husbandry conditions. Our understandingof the ecological effects of ‘normal’ but locally adapted livestock breeds over a widerange of husbandry forms, as was common earlier, is decidedly limited.

Since 1993, we analyzed and evaluated the applicability of conventional livestockspecies and breeds for conservational aspects in a series of research and developmentprojects. Comprehensive results of sheep husbandry in station shepherding systemshave already been published (cf. Beinlich and Plachter 1995) so it is only necessaryhere to consider these findings where they are needed for a better understanding ofthe conclusions in Chap. 9. The focus of the following chapter is on a project on large-scale cattle farming in the years 1999 to 2004 which was financed by the GermanMinistry for Research and Education (BMBF) and was aimed at ‘opening up land-scapes’. A number of other projects, particularly concerning reference areas in othercountries, were networked to this project (Plachter et al. 2004) (Table 2.1).

All projects followed a common concept which can be described with the followingbasic premises:

� a focusing on ‘normal’ species and breeds, which are currently used in agriculture;� validation of the ecological propositions through economic accounting as well as

identification of the key parameters which are decisive for the viability of differentgrazing variants;

� the use of modern processing systems (GIS, scenarios);� parallel analysis of the effects on different spatial levels (micro-level up to land-

scape);� detailed, comparative behavior studies of livestock dependent of the size of the

pasture and other husbandry conditions;� reconstruction of the historical effects and with regard to (re-)introduction, the

expected effects of such forms of livestock keeping through reference investi-gations in very large grazing areas in different parts of Europe (Georgia, Ukraine,Sweden);

� the development of grazing models in the German low mountain ranges (SwabianAlbs, Rhoen, South Black Forest) and validation of the transferability of the results.

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Livestock grazing on large areas, particularly with cattle, has virtually disappearedfrom the Central European low mountain ranges. The corresponding effects on naturecan now hardly be investigated in this area. It is true that an experimental reintroduc-tion, as was practiced in the Thuringia Rhoen, could yield important results. However,long-term effects from such an approach cannot be analyzed. In earlier times on theother hand, extensive livestock grazing was widespread in Central Europe (cf. Fincket al. 2002; Plachter 2004). How this exactly functioned is not clear and there are onlyrough ideas, some of which are colored with romanticized interpretations. The break-down of the Soviet economy, which had already began in the 1970s and 1980s, and themore or less complete return to subsistence production based largely on bartering,opened up the possibility of studying two peripheral reference areas in Eastern Europewith respect to the grazing systems which resulted from these events (Didebulidze andPlachter 2002; Horban et al. 2000). The reasons for choosing the areas in westernUkraine and Georgia are given in Table 2.2.

Table 2.1. Research and development project on extensive livestock grazing, of which the resultsare shown in this book

2.2 · Extensive Grazing with Local Livestock Breeds


Of course, these types of subsistence production systems are not transferable on aone-to-one basis to Central and Western Europe. However, they give important infor-mation about how the conditions of the ecosystems and the range of species to whichwe afford priority protection in those European areas came about. Individual elementsof these ‘historical’ grazing systems may have a value in being integrated into currentmanagement systems.

However, the question remains open as to the extent to which extensive grazingforms can be viably achieved under the agri-structural framework conditions of theEuropean Union. The southern part of the island of Oeland, where for thousands ofyears, large-scale livestock farming has been carried out on the ‘Alvar’, offers an excel-lent example for this purpose. In addition, the composition of fauna and flora is verysimilar to that of the Central European low mountain range areas, resulting from theunique local climate and its biogeographical history (Rosen in this book, Sterner 1986).

Table 2.2. Characteristics of the investigated areas

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Oeland already belongs to the EU, the countries of the Caucasus are members of theCouncil of Europe (for more information, see ‘European Landscape Convention underwww.coe.int/t/e/Cultural_Co-operation/Environment/Landscape 2006) and westernUkraine has shifted closer to the EU following the eastwards expansion. If livestock graz-ing is to be recognized as an important instrument in landscape management, it will haveto be properly regulated in the future within a consistent European framework. This willinclude forms of direct and indirect financial support. Then, it has to be made clear whichvariants have conservation value, and therefore should be assisted, and which do not.

Given the current state of knowledge, the reference areas in Eastern Europe and inSweden have served for ecological and economic analyses, and – in the case of Georgia –also little sociological analysis. Definite recommendations for action have only been de-veloped for the German investigation area (Fig. 2.1). However, the relevant conceptualconsiderations are transferable, with certain adaptations, to other European landscapes.

2.3Effects at Different Spatial Levels

Grazing has effects on quite different spatial levels. Also, the term grazing applies notonly to the effects of cropping vegetation, but includes all the other manifestations ofthe animal’s presence, such as trampling, nutrient redistribution, diaspore spread andgrooming which may temporarily occur (perhaps through the sunlight penetrating toground level) or affect the nutrient balance (depositing of dung and urine):

� On the ‘meso-level’, for example, on pastures, through the reduction or expansionof an existing local habitat spectrum or through the redistribution of nutrients;

� On the ‘macro-level’, for example, the farmed land of a commune or a section oflandscape, through the temporal-spatial configuration of pastures, the transport ofdispersion units (diaspores, transferred animals) through livestock or the necessity ofcultivational activity including grassland management to provide feed for the livestock.

2.3 · Effects at Different Spatial Levels

Fig. 2.1.Location of investigation areas


The discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of livestock grazing is fre-quently made more difficult, sometimes to the point of absurdity, through the poorlyconsidered comparison of effects at different spatial levels. What may seem a majorintervention at the micro-level, such as a local soil denudation through tramplingdamage to the vegetation, can make a substantial contribution to enriching the habitatspectrum at the meso-level. A pasture could be relatively species-poor at the meso-level and may continue to function only through the supplementary supply to the live-stock of fodder from meadows, but at the same time may contribute significantly to thebiodiversity of the section of landscape, that is, at macro-level.

It is in no way just the spatial complexity which makes an appraisal of the grazingsystems so difficult; to an equal measure, the very dynamic time factor is also problem-atic. In Central Europe, existing species have to be able to compensate for severe changesin environmental conditions in the course of the seasons. Their requirements for sur-vival have become correspondingly specialized. There is need for specific resources tobe available at exactly the ‘right time’. For most amphibian species, it is sufficient iftheir specific needs regarding standing waters are available for three months of theyear. Nectar-seeking insects require an adequate ‘basic supply’ during the activity period.

Table 2.3. Development and improvement of meso-scale temporally high-resolution surveying andanalysis procedures. In addition, ‘conventional’ procedures such as transect surveys and point sourcevisual observations were used

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The abundance of nutritional resources during the pre-imaginal phase, that is, a win-dow of perhaps only a few weeks, is decisive for population numbers in the followingyear. Until now, it has hardly been properly taken into account in nature conservationstrategies that the survival of many species in Central Europe depends not only on theexistence of structurally stable habitats and resources, but also on the ‘on time’ avail-ability of these ephemeral factors.

For an analysis of the micro-level, there is a wide spectrum of established ecologicalfield methods. However, it is only seldom that these allow for a direct causal connec-tion with grazing effects. At the macro-level, too, there are targeted methods of evalu-ation which are available, though mainly providing only limited spatial resolutions orinadequate topicality (for example, remote data, communal statistics etc.). At the meso-level, there are glaring methodological deficits in area-wide, overall data collection andcomparison evaluations. This is particularly the case for high resolution spatial dataseries. The use of substituting techniques, as they are currently used, in which data setsfrom the other two levels are transferred, are inadequate to answer the questions thrownup here, because of the meso-scale heterogeneity under study (point source data rep-resent this insufficiently) and because of the spatial-temporal blurring of the macro-scale data.

A significant focal point of the work presented here was therefore the developmentof meso-scale methods of analysis with high spatial-temporal resolution. For this,various approaches were followed in parallel (Table 2.3). The perspectives and the lim-its of the methods applied are described in more detail in Chap. 4.

2.4Economic Analyses

There cannot yet be a properly developed and reliable understanding of the econom-ics of large-scale grazing, because this system is only practiced at scattered locationsin Central Europe and under non-representative conditions. Even where it is practiced,information is often inadequate. In some of the keeping systems, which at least par-tially come close to the ideals researched in this book, even the operators themselvesare not clear about the economic details. In extreme cases, which one can however seein practice, the animals were not purchased and paid for, but were delivered from someor other authority, or “were always there”. Here, the required work is put in by person-nel who also carry out other occupations. No account is kept over these inputs, andpossibly as ‘reward’ for this, a product of the system, say, a slaughtered sheep, is distrib-uted to the personnel. Even where economic issues are not so readily dismissed to thisextent, one can still sense a considerable disinterest in these questions. Even long-ex-isting model schemes and special research and development projects for extensivegrazing have not given much attention to the economics (cf. Redecker et al. 2002);possible results from the practical projects on hand which operated parallel to thisresearch work have not yet been published.

A main task of the economic studies in this book consists in bringing together thescattered knowledge which is available and transferring it to the specifics of large-scalegrazing. The search for usable material impinges on three types of preliminary work:

2.4 · Economic Analyses


� The most numerous by far concerns calculations for agricultural standard practices,such as cattle breeding. If this is also as extensively operated as dairy farming, thenit is in fact not far removed from large-scale grazing which is in keeping with natureconservation. After the necessary processing of the data, however, such calculationsare an important foundation for the subject at hand. In Sect. 8.1, the relevant litera-ture will be considered and model calculations will be carried out in accordancewith the required methodology applying to the farm business operation.

� There are several studies which gave been carried out on the effects of landscapecare with grazing on old military training sites which were in the former GermanDemocratic Republic, in particular by Prochnow and Schlauderer (2002). These areasare characterized by weak vegetation growth and forms of husbandry which arefairly undemanding with respect to production targets.

� For the first time, a comparative economic study has been carried out on more orless experimental and unconventional grazing projects, mainly with Heck cattle,which are farmed in different areas of Germany (Kaphengst et al. 2005). In spite ofthe difficulties referred to above concerning a systematically consistent consider-ation of economic factors, this study delivered significant results.

� Somewhat older studies concerning the economics of large-scale free-roaming andshepherded sheep farming systems (Tampe and Hampicke 1995) have added to thepicture. The last three mentioned preliminary works will also be critically consid-ered in Sect. 8.1. All in all, this provides a thoroughly robust picture of the econom-ics of large-scale grazing systems.

In a further section (Sect. 8.2), a future scenario is developed for a hitherto agricul-turally small-structured grassland region of the Rhoen in which certain agri-politicaldirection changes have to be reckoned with. In this work, the perceptions of the localfarming leaders are incorporated, as ascertained through a survey (Sect. 7.7). As wellas politically determined developments (agricultural policy after 2013), a considerationis also made of current variants which appear utopian, such as the notion of a totalliberalization within world market conditions. The chances for the establishment oflarge-scale grazing systems are essentially dependent on the agri-political environment.

Practical issues are tackled in Sect. 8.3 with a consideration of the hard realities offarming. The financial consequences are calculated for a large enterprise in the easternpart of the Rhoen which would occur following the transition from an already fairlyextensive grazing system at present to an even more large-scale system in which sto-chastic effects could be expected. In this case, the already existing large-scale structuremakes a transition of this type easier.

2.5Working Hypotheses

For all investigations, the general assumption was that livestock can generate far greater‘close-to-nature’ and differentiated spatial-temporal ecological effects than previouslyaccepted if they are given the freedom to fully unfold the behavior pattern typical oftheir species. If this is correct, then large-scale systems with the associated behavior-

37

determined freedom of choice would be a decisive criterion for the conservation valueof pastureland. The influence of livestock would not then have an even effect within ashort time, as is seen in the present-day with the usual small-area rotational grazingbut would become differentiated with varying localized effects from the pressures ofuse as the livestock follow particular preferences. This should result in a clear habitatdiversification and therefore provide for colonization opportunities for significantlymore non-domesticated animal and plant species.

Specifically, the investigations are based on ten working hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1. The decisive factor for the achievement of a high level of biodiversity isthe spatial-temporal heterogeneity of the livestock effects. It increases significantlydepending on the size of the pasture, the type of grazing system and ultimately on thefreedom of the animals themselves in satisfying their particular living needs. On large-scale systems, behavioral aspects of the wild ancestors are reactivated, such as socialorder and grooming behavior.

Hypothesis 2. On sufficiently large areas, grazing leads to a strengthening of the exist-ing habitat diversity rather than a leveling of it, in contrast to effects from ‘modern’systems of husbandry. Large-area livestock pastures are therefore more diverse thanother farmed areas within the same landscape area.

Hypothesis 3. With livestock farming on large areas, the animals bring similar conser-vation benefits as wild animals and semi-wild domestic and ‘bred-back’ breeds. Inaddition, the logistical and economic integration in agricultural enterprises is morefavorable. However, the effects of the individual livestock species show considerabledifferences.

Hypothesis 4. Some grassland ecosystems are therefore particularly species-rich be-cause the ‘historical’ use continues to prevail. A more sophisticated understanding ofthe farming systems that were formerly used is therefore an important basis for the‘right’ type of management for such areas.

Hypothesis 5. Transhumance and other shepherding systems have positive effects onthe survival probability of grassland species, in that they transport dispersion entitiesand create a more favorable spatial-temporal habitat pattern at the agricultural level.

Hypothesis 6. While it is true that grazing animals make a significant contribution tothe progress of vegetation development, they are not capable alone of keeping land-scapes open in the long term. Parallel to this is the necessity that there should be either‘hard’ natural ‘disturbances’ or additional anthropogenic interferences within the frame-work of so-called ‘pasture management’ or mowing.

Hypothesis 7. Compared with the current average situation, high biodiversity on pas-ture land can only be expected under very nutrient-poor conditions and a grazingpressure which completely exhausts the capacity of the particular area.

2.5 · Working Hypotheses


Hypothesis 8. Although relatively extensive agricultural grazing enterprise systems andespecially suckler cow farming is known to be particularly loss-making and thereforein need of subsidy, there are possibilities for cost reductions so that large grazing sys-tems could be seen as realistic and publicly financeable land use alternatives. Of course,this presupposes the existence of corresponding agricultural structural conditions,which are more likely to be found in the federal states of the former German Demo-cratic Republic.

Hypothesis 9. There is no categorical contradiction between traditional agriculturalgrassland usage and large-scale grazing; in fact, there is a continuum of graduatedintensity. Elements of intensive land use such as dairy farming could be very suitablepartners of large-scale grazing, as in the case of the raising of young cattle.

Hypothesis 10. Each type of land use in Central Europe is enmeshed in a system ofpolitical intentions, requirements and obstacles. The form of this background situa-tion has greater consequence even than many of the internal economic problems af-fecting the enterprise. Large-scale grazing will find its place when the politicians setthe course in its favor. The most important thing here is the provision of specific finan-cial rewards for agri-ecological achievements.

2.6Focal Points in this Book

The following key areas for consideration arise from the working hypotheses:Chapter 3 describes the area of investigation in more detail. Chapter 4 focuses ex-

clusively on the further development of relevant survey and analysis methods on ter-rains, in which a particular emphasis will be placed on meso-scale and high frequencymethods and the analysis of livestock behavior.

Chapter 5 deals with findings at the micro-level, Chap. 6 at the meso-level and Chap. 7at the macro-level, including economic case studies. Chapter 8 summarizes the find-ings with a series of contributions, relates them to accepted knowledge and derivesfrom this practical recommendations for action.

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