Assessing Economic Viability of Resilient Sheep Foraging Alternatives in Lowland Regions of Romania

Rodica Chetroiu, Steliana Rodino (), Vili Dragomir, Diana Maria Ilie and Ancuța Marin
Additional contact information
Rodica Chetroiu: Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural Development, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Steliana Rodino: Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural Development, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Vili Dragomir: Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural Development, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Diana Maria Ilie: Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural Development, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Ancuța Marin: Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural Development, 011464 Bucharest, Romania

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: Sheep farming is an important branch of the animal husbandry sector in Europe. In 2023, Romania’s sheep and goat herds ranked third in the European Union, with more than 10 million heads, contributing substantially to the production of meat, traditional cheeses, and wool. However, in the current climate context, with extreme weather events and especially long periods of drought, providing optimal fodder ratio becomes a challenge for farmers. As animal nutritionists provide valid alternatives, consistent with the nutritional requirements of the species, the present work aims to present some economically efficient fodder alternatives to use for milk production in sheep farms of different sizes. The study brings added value to research in the field of using fodder alternatives in animal nutrition through the economic aspects researched because profitability is pursued in any activity, thus completing the technical arguments of previous studies in the literature in the field. Several economic indicators were calculated, such as the total value by categories of expenses, the value of production, the level of profit, and the rate of gross and net return. The analysis demonstrated that regardless of their size, the sheep farms located in lowland areas can reach positive values of profitability indicators when using alternative fodder in animal feeding.

Keywords: sheep farming; economic efficiency; millet; climate change; Romania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/9/1656/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/9/1656/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:9:p:1656-:d:1483089

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().