Abstract
Since the early years, the most important sector of the agriculture in Greece was the small ruminant production and management. Today, this sector employs a remarkable proportion of the Greek population. Greece is respectively listed at the first and second place, among the European Union countries, in sheep and goat milk production. Sheep and goat farming is of great importance because it provides: (a) a large number of dairy and meat products with high nutritive value; (b) a substantial income to the farmers, and (c) creating added value by processing and marketing of sheep and goat meat and milk. The presented study was conducted in the Municipality of Grevena. The purpose of this work is to examine the zootechnical and techno-economical characteristics of the Greek farming systems (sheep and goat) and to study the effect of the flock size upon the economic variables of the farms. In a second level the data were subjected to cluster analysis in order to define a typology of sheep and goat farms, based on their financial and zootechnical parameters. The development of a typology is expected to determine the flock profile and performance of dairy sheep and goat farms.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1786-1792 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2014 |
Keywords
- farm family income
- farm income
- hierarchical cluster analysis.
- profit/loss