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sheurope

Europe, one of the most important lamb production areas in the world and the first destination of the lamb world market, is in a crisis situation. It suffers from a regular lack in production, a high diversity and dispersion of its production, and from the threat of other more powerful outlets. .

 

 

LOWLAND SHEEP PRODUCTION IN IRELAND

 

After an important increase before 1993, the number of Irish sheep (and even more of breeders) has declined because of the 92 CAP more favourable to other animal productions. The mid-season lamb system (predominant in Ireland) has indeed seen its margins decrease since 1994 under the common effect of a price decrease, and direct payments which represent, on average, 62% of the net margin, and this without significant changes in technical performances. The early lambing system (for Easter market), depending on an out-of-season premium, gets, in spite of higher costs, similar margins per ewe but higher per hectare versus the mid-season system. Finally, the hill system is extremely dependant on the direct payments (73 % of the inputs), moreover the number of ewes is decreasing to avoid environment damage due to too high a storage rate. Although they are not integrated in the 2000 Agenda Reform, the sheep will suffer at the same time from the lower price announced for beef and white meat, from more favourable beef premiums in the future, as well as from the measures aiming at reducing the stocking rate in mountain areas. If we add the labour difficulties to the above threats, we can forecast another reduction of about 10% in the Irish sheep breeding flock, mainly due to the loss of sheep competitivity already induced by the McSharry Reform in 1992.

 

SHEEP BREEDING IN ESTONIA

 

In Estonia, the agricultural area represents 1/3 of the total national surface and about 30% of the population is rural. Agricultural enterprises produce about half of the agricultural production, but this production has been decreasing for many years as have the sheep numbers which have been approximately divided by 5 since 1992.

The flock sizes are small (less than 12 ewes for most of them). Two breeds constitute the national flock : the Estonian Blackhead and Whitehead. The production systems are mainly extensive with a winter period of about 6 months. The individual consumption of mutton has decreased in the same proportions as the flock (from 1,3 to 0,3 kg per person and per year), because there are few foreign exchanges. Wool, if processed, can be interesting as there is a market for the knitted products with local patterns. The Estonian Sheep Breeders Association is in charge of the technical and commercial development of sheep in the country, and the sheep breeders have got their first headage payments in 1999. However, the main problem for the Estonian sheep breeding is the difficulty for marketing and getting satisfying prices.  

 

THE MEAT SHEEP PRODUCTION IN FRANCE COMING TO A CROSS-ROADS

 

France has seen a sustained regression for its meat sheep flock for the last twenty years, particularly in the Northern half of the country. The small breeders mainly disappear. In the large cereal plains, sheep numbers decreased because of the strong attractiveness of cereal production (premiums and farm extensions). In the intensive pasture areas, the premiums granted, according to ewe numbers, discriminate against high lamb productivity. Farmers, therefore, move back to more extensive systems when possible. The mixed sheep and cattle systems seem to rogressively leave sheep to the benefit of beef which suffers less work constraints and has more advantageous premiums. On the contrary, the Southern pastoral systems resist well thanks to the important increase of the number of sheep per Labour Unit and to the funding for space planning and agri-environmental measures. Low incomes for the meat sheep farms and the decrease in salesprice contribute to a pessimistic view of the meat sheep future. The increase of labour productivity, however, and the benefits of sheep for land use (source of identity, food resource and patrimony) shows that we can still draw an income from meat sheep in France, altough this still depends on the announced Common Trade Organisation.

 

CURRENT SITUATION AND PERSPECTIVES OF THE MILK SHEEP PRODUCTION IN SPAIN

 

Spain, the third ranked country in Europe for producing sheep milk, is rapidly evolving. Although its number of milk ewes has decreased, its production has increased thanks to an important improvement of the milk productivity per ewe. This improvement has been possible due to the food system intensification, milking mechanisation and the increasing use of genetic basis coming mainly from Israel (Awassi and Assaf). Moreover, the increase of the production has been allowed by the increase of consumption and the meat sheep crisis. Milk sheep production, based on numerous couples "breeds-cheese AOC", is concentrated in Spain in three Autonomous Communities, Castilla Leon, Castilla la Mancha and Navarra . These areas totalise 90% of the national production. The economic results show that milk sheep production is globally in a favourable position compared to the meat sheep production, but that we cannot really show significant income differences between intensive and extensive systems. In the future, the main issue for milk sheep in Spain is quality of the milk and cheese produced.

 

SHEEP BREEDING IN SARDA

 

Sarda is a pasture island and more specially a sheep breeding one (producing half the Sarda animal production comes from sheep, and more than half the Italian sheep milk production is sarda too). The "Sarda" breed produces between 100 and 130 litres of milk per year with average rates of 64g for fat matter and 55g for protein content. The production system is typically familial and extensive with manual milking of an average 160 ewes. The Artificial Insemination genetic scheme selects rams on their offspring for milk quantity, and will soon take into account the protein content. The leading cheese, Pecorino Romano is nearly entirely produced in Sarda and it is more and more exported (Northern America). After a favourable period for sheep milk, its price has decreased in the last years, the planned decrease in numbers could be stopped by the Modernisation Plan set by the Regional Government, and a trend toward "organic" production for the less favoured areas. In this context, a Common Trade Organisation for sheep milk would be useful.

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