Commercialization of smallholder agriculture in South Africa is underpinned by reforms to improve livestock off-take in communal areas and engage smallholder farmers with formal markets. To achieve this, Custom Feeding Programmes (CFPs) were established to improve the condition of communal cattle prior to their sale into formal markets and to ‘systematise’ the informal marketing of cattle in communal areas by enabling participants to achieve higher informal market prices. We evaluate the sustainability of eight CFPs located in Eastern Cape Province in terms of their ability to add value to smallholder cattle production and encourage market participation. Communities with CFPs achieved a 16.6% mean cattle off-take rate, substantially higher than in most communal systems. Furthermore, cattle sold through CFPs attained a 17% higher mean selling price than those sold through other marketing channels. However, these benefits were mainly realized by better-off farmers with larger cattle herds and greater ability to transport animals to and from CFPs. More marginalized farmers, particularly women, had low participation. CFPs also face challenges to their sustainability, including inconsistent feed and water supplies, poor infrastructure and high staff turnover. Key to enhancing participation in CFPs, will be improving the way they are supported and embedded within communities.

This paper explores the potential for farmers’ engagement on the issues related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation in extensive low-input livestock farming systems. The framework used was based on Participatory Action Research. This involved integrating quantitative evidence on GHG emission impacts at the farm level and qualitative data on the obstacles to the adoption of innovation based on farmers’ perceptions and attitudes to climate change. The study aims at building social capital among 14 farmers in the South West and West Midlands regions in England, and it evaluates the potential for the adoption of emission mitigation strategies. The Rapid Farm Practices Appraisal (RFPA) tool was created to assess farm practices based on their mitigation potential. Practices were assessed twice over 6–9 months. Semi-structured interviews were used to assess barriers and opportunities to farmer engagement and on-farm innovation. Farmers were invited to a focus group meeting to network with other farmers and engage with researchers. All farmers participated in the 2 farm assessments, but only half the farmers adopted changes in farm management. All farmers appreciated the RFPA tool, the clearness of the information provided and the focus of the tool on practices directly. The main obstacles to innovation were limited financial capital, lack of trust in government action and confusion over the effectiveness of farm advice on mitigation. The lack of long-term flexibility of agricultural policies and the source of information greatly influenced the acceptance of advice. Results suggest the potential for the expansion of the RFPA tool to include economic assessment of farm practices and the engagement of a larger pool of farmers and farming systems. The tool could be used to support the GHG Action Plan and future environmental policies, and as an integrated self-assessment tool for farmers under Environmental Stewardship Schemes.

Several studies have reported gross composition differences between organic and conventional milk; however, most studies have not considered other factors such as breed and diet ingredients, which are known to influence milk composition. Thus, this study aimed to provide a detailed characterization of Holstein-Friesian cow milk from organic (ORG) and conventional (CONV) herds with similar diet ingredients and in the same geographic area. Bulk milk samples (n = 225) of 12 ORG and 12 CONV farms were collected from September 2019 to August 2020. Farms were located in Northern Italy, included corn (meal, silage, or both) in the lactating diets, and had similar management conditions, but ORG herds spent a period on pasture. Factors affecting milk composition were tested using a linear mixed model, which included calendar month, farming system (ORG and CONV), and their interactions as fixed effects, and farm nested within farming system as random effect. Results showed that total fat, lactose, vitamin E, and AA did not significantly differ between farming systems. Total protein and casein contents were significantly lower in ORG than CONV herds, and somatic cell score (SCS) was greater in ORG than CONV. Among minerals, differences were observed for Fe, K, Mg, and S in some months, being lower in ORG than CONV for K, Mg, and S and greater or lower for Fe depending on the month. Among fatty acid (FA) groups, index, and ratios, only polyunsaturated FA and n-3 FA tended to be greater in ORG than CONV, and cis-FA were greater in ORG than CONV during October. Among the most abundant individual FA, only C16:1n-9 differed, being lower in ORG than CONV. The calendar month (and hence seasonal feed ration) was significant for milk gross composition, SCS, vitamin E, mineral profile (except for Mo, Sr, and Zn), AA profile, FA groups (except for medium-chain FA), FA index and ratios, and individual FA (except C16:0). We conclude that the overall milk composition was quite similar between the 2 farming systems. This could be related to the similarity of the selected farms, the Holstein-Friesian breed, and generally high level of intensity in both farming systems.

Agroforestry integrates woody vegetation with crop and/or livestock production to benefit from the ecological and economic interactions. The objective of this paper is to systematically determine the spatial distribution of agroforestry in the EU, and changes in the areas and types of agroforestry from 2009 to 2018. This was achieved using the Land Use/Cover Area Statistical (LUCAS) dataset. Agroforestry was categorised into silvopastoral, silvoarable, agrosilvopastoral, grazed permanent crops, intercropped permanent crops and kitchen gardens systems. In our categorisation of ‘agroforestry’, sites combing trees and shrubs with understorey grass or forage were required to show evidence of grazing. In 2018, the total area of agroforestry in the EU28 was 114,621 km² equivalent to 6.4% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA), and a majority located in the Mediterranean bioregion. Silvopastoral was the most widespread system, representing 81% of the total agroforestry area (5% of UAA), with almost a third of that area present in Spain. An initial analysis of the LUCAS data suggested that the area of agroforestry increased from 2009 to 2012, before declining from 2012 to 2018. However our subsequent analysis suggests that the area of agroforestry in 2009 was underestimated due to a mis-categorisation of some grazing areas. After making corrections, we calculated that the area of agroforestry (using the above definitions) in the EU23 (a full-time sequence for the EU28 is unavailable) declined by 47% between 2009 and 2018. This decline is primarily due to a reduction in outdoor grazing, perhaps driven by reduced livestock numbers and/or permanent livestock housing. The only agroforestry system showing an increase was kitchen gardens (7%). The paper highlights the usefulness of the LUCAS dataset for studying the extent of agroforestry in Europe, but also potential limitations in terms of the consistency of the location of data points and the categorisation of grazing. The paper also argues that although the area of within-field agroforestry may be declining, the drive towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions may be re-establishing the link between increased tree cover and food production at a farm-level.

Due to the increasing interest in organic farming, an overview of this research area is provided through a bibliometric analysis conducted between April and May 2019. A total of 320 documents were published up until 2018 on organic livestock farming, with an annual growth rate of 9.33% and a clear increase since 2005; 268 documents have been published in 111 journals. Germany is the country with the largest number of published papers (56 documents). Authors’ top keywords (excluding keywords used for running the search) included: animal welfare (29 times), animal health (22 times), cattle (15 times), grazing (10 times), and sheep (10 times). This could indicate that more research has been done on cattle because of the importance of this species in Germany. Moreover, the prevalence of the terms ‘animal welfare’ and ‘animal health’ may indicate that the research on organic livestock production has been focused on these two areas. The bibliometric analysis indicates that: (i) countries focused the organic livestock production research on their main production, and (ii) more research in species other than cattle and sheep is needed.