Quantifying Land Fragmentation in Northern Irish Cattle Enterprises

Georgina Milne, Andrew William Byrne, Emma Campbell, Jordon Graham, John McGrath, Raymond Kirke, Wilma McMaster, Jesko Zimmermann and Adewale Henry Adenuga
Additional contact information
Georgina Milne: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast BT4 3SD, UK
Andrew William Byrne: One-Health Unit, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Agriculture House, D02 WK12 Dublin, Ireland
Emma Campbell: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast BT4 3SD, UK
Jordon Graham: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast BT4 3SD, UK
John McGrath: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Area Based Scheme), Orchard House, Foyle Street, Derry/Londonderry BT48 6AT, UK
Raymond Kirke: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Veterinary Service Animal Health), Ballykelly House, Ballykelly Road, Ballykelly, Limavady BT49 9HP, UK
Wilma McMaster: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Land Parcel Identification System), Dundonald House, Belfast BT4 3SB, UK
Jesko Zimmermann: Agrifood Business and Spatial Analysis, Rural Economy & Development Programme, Teagasc, Ashtown Research Centre, D15 DY05 Dublin, Ireland
Adewale Henry Adenuga: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast BT4 3SD, UK

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Farmland fragmentation is considered to be a defining feature of Northern Ireland’s (NI) agricultural landscape, influencing agricultural efficiency, productivity, and the spread of livestock diseases. Despite this, the full extent of farmland fragmentation in cattle farms in NI is not well understood, and little is known of how farmland fragmentation either influences, or is influenced by, different animal production types. Here, we describe and quantify farmland fragmentation in cattle farms for all of NI, using GIS processing of land parcel data to associate individual parcels with data on the cattle business associated with the land. We found that 35% of farms consisted of five or more fragments, with dairy farms associated with greater levels of farmland fragmentation, fragment dispersal and contact with contiguous neighbours compared to other production types. The elevated levels of farmland fragmentation in dairy production compared to non-dairy, may be associated with the recent expansion of dairy farms by land acquisition, following the abolition of the milk quota system in 2015. The comparatively high levels of farmland fragmentation observed in NI cattle farms may also have important implications for agricultural productivity and epidemiology alike. Whilst highly connected pastures could facilitate the dissemination of disease, highly fragmented land could also hamper productivity via diseconomies of scale, such as preventing the increase of herd sizes or additionally, adding to farm costs by increasing the complexity of herd management.

Keywords: farmland fragmentation; farm fragmentation; dairy; cattle farming; agricultural productivity; Northern Ireland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:3:p:402-:d:767429

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