European sheep and goat farming faces diverse challenges at global or local scales and constitutes an important sector for many countries, playing important sociocultural, economic and environmental roles. A closer examination of the overall sustainability of the sector is necessary to assess the performance of different farm types in various geographical settings. This comparative study evaluates the use of a common sustainability assessment (SA) tool for the major European countries in the sheep and goat sector. In particular, the study reports the results of a SA using the Public Goods (PG) Tool, adapted within the Innovation for Sustainable Sheep and Goat Production in Europe (iSAGE) Horizon 2020 project, which includes questions accounting for 13 dimensions of a sheep and goat farm sustainability. In total, 206 farmers from Greece, Italy, Spain, Finland, United Kingdom, France and Turkey were interviewed, all of which were typical of specific types of a pan-European sheep and goat farm typologies elaborated within iSAGE. The study resulted in composite indicators of performance in each dimension for each country. Finland, Italy and the United Kingdom performed better than other countries, while Turkey and Greece performed below average in most categories. The results highlight challenges for each country but also at the European level, the latter mainly relating to generational renewal and an unwillingness to invest in the adoption of a more sustainable approach with long-term results.

This study examines the strategies – defensive or aggressive, individual or collective – undertaken by sheep farms in a Greek rural area in order to face the repercussions of the economic crisis and their effects on the productivity and economic performance of these farms. The article presents the results of a farm management survey conducted in 2010 and repeated in 2014 in northern Evros, Greece. The mix of strategies – mainly passive – adopted by farmers shows their confusion in the face of crisis conditions, which has resulted in reduced productivity, more use of family labour and a rise in collective actions.

Small ruminant production is predominantly linked to the use of natural pastures; however the intensification process in past decades has led to a gradual abandonment of grazing and the prevalence of intensive patterns. This paper contributes to the discussion about the economic performance of small ruminant farms relative to the use of pastures. Using data from a sample of Greek sheep and goat farms it is shown that grazing does not necessarily increase economic performance. If not organized carefully, farms which graze more do not reduce their feeding costs or they counterbalance this reduction with increases labor expenses. An efficiency analysis of the sample using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) shows that farms which graze less are generally more efficient than the ones which graze more. Furthermore, the input-oriented DEA model reveals that the same level of output could be achieved with less a reduction of hours grazing by 12.5% and 11.9%, respectively for farms which graze less than 1800 h and more than 1800 respectively. It is concluded that a higher level of organization is required to render grazing a practice with positive economic impact on farms, including infrastructure for better accessibility of pastures, more efficient rations and training. This applies also to the framework for pasture use in Greece, as the delivery of Integrated Grazing Management Plans is expected to provide guidance and stability to small ruminant farmers.

In this paper, we examine the changes in the structural, economic and managerial characteristics of dairy cow farms during their shift towards a new business model that operates under a highly intensified system. Based on farm accounting data from Greek dairy farms for the 2004–2017 period, the main technical and financial indicators are estimated and compared to provide a clear picture of the structural adjustment of the dairy cow sector during the last two decades. The outcomes and the implications described herein are relevant for specialized dairy farms in most European countries. The results indicate that modern farms breed a larger number of cows, achieve a higher milk yield, rely on high compound feed intakes and operate under an intensive pattern. This trend is even more evident in larger farms with an entrepreneurial nature, whose structural adjustments occurred in a more concise and effective manner. The latter benefited from a downward shift in their long-term average cost curves and the resulting economies of scale, achieving reasonable gross margins despite the ever-increasing feeding costs. Nowadays, the European dairy cow sector faces major economic, social and environmental challenges that must be properly addressed to secure its survival. The findings of this study provide insights concerning the efficient financial management of dairy farms that can support the development of strategies and policy recommendations that will enhance the resilience and sustainability of the sector.

Dairy farming in Greece constitutes a particular case of livestock farming, because of its highly entrepreneurial nature. The modern Greek dairy cattle farming is predominantly based in Northern Greece, where more than 80% of Greek cow milk is produced. Since the 2000's the dairy cattle sector is characterized by a rapid increase in the mean size of farms, which permits them to undertake investments in machinery and buildings and to have access to improved genetic material for the achievement of higher productivity. Nevertheless, this development renders dairy farms vulnerable to volatile economic conditions, as they are heavily dependent on capital endowments. The main purpose of this study is to examine the consequences of the economic crisis on the dairy cattle sector and the strategies undertaken by farmers to cope with it. The analysis is based on data from a questionnaire survey of farmers in Northern Greece. Strategies undertaken by dairy farmers in order to face the crisis and to ensure the survival of their businesses are recorded through a set of Likert-scale questions. Technical and economic data are also analyzed in order to examine the economic performance of farms, revealing that the sampled dairy farms are viable, with satisfactory economic results, with capital returns of 6.2% annually. Based on the Likert-scale data, dairy farmers adopt active strategies to face the crisis, by undertaking investments and augmenting their farm sizes, while they deem that the crisis does not have catastrophic results on the profitability of their farms. On the other hand, strategies which entail less expenses and/or diminished productivity are unpopular among dairy farmers. Finally, the vast majority of respondents claim to have seen negative consequences on their farms from the recent measures concerning the prolongation of the duration of fresh milk in retail markets: lower quality, increased vulnerability to international competition, shrinking dairy sector.