Economic and management characterization of dehesa farms: implications for their sustainability

Dehesa agroforestry systems occupy around 6 million ha in the Iberian Peninsula. Their economic and environmental sustainability depends on the maintenance of the extensive livestock farms which created this typical ecosystem. This work analyzes dehesa farms in the Extremadura region (SW Spain) using technical and economic indicators of 69 randomly selected holdings. Principal component analysis (PCA) allowed us to establish a valid model explaining 65.8% of the variance. The two principal components having most weight were Iberian pig production (explaining 20% of the variance of the model), and which ruminant species were raised on the farm (15% of the variance). A cluster analysis distinguished five types of farms: sheep farms at high and low stocking rates, beef cattle farms, wooded farms with mixed livestock, and farms with a high level of cropping activity. The most profitable farms were those with either high overall livestock density or a high level of Iberian pig production. While high stocking density has historically attracted high levels of subsidy, production of Iberian pigs was profitable because of the high value of the product. In the light of CAP reform, Iberian pig production seems the most readily sustainable type of farming for the dehesa system.