Farmers taking responsibility for herd health development—stable schools in research and advisory activities as a tool for dairy health and welfare planning in Europe

Achieving and maintaining a high herd health and welfare status is an important aim in organic livestock farming. The varying farming systems across and within countries call for models that are relevant for different farming types and that can be integrated into local practice. In stable schools, farmers take responsibility for health and welfare planning by identifying issues, setting goals, and acting to improve the health situation based on farm-specific data, e.g. milk production. This paper reviews the results from intervention studies that used a modified ‘farmer field school’ approach for animal health and welfare planning, providing an overview of ongoing activities and their implementation into advisory situations in selected European countries. Studies on stable schools as an intervention tool showed improvements regarding the specific project aim on the majority of the participating farms. Farmers and facilitators were convinced of the approach and benefits for dairy herds. Farmers’ attitude and attention towards their herds and their ownership of the process appear to be crucial success factors for herd health and welfare situations. In some European countries, this method has been implemented in advisory practice, and in other regions, there are relevant and promising opportunities.</p

Apple production and apple value chains in Europe

This paper presents an overview of the apple sector in nine major apple producing countries in Europe, in order to assess factors for the competitiveness of the national apple value chains and identify challenges for the future development of the sector. Based on international and national statistical data and expert assessment, key characteristics of apple production and value chains are analyzed. For each country, a brief description of the development of apple production and acreage over the past ten years, farm size distribution, level of production technology and main market channels is presented, followed by a discussion of differences and similarities. Results show a diverse picture of the apple sectors in Europe. Similarities are observed in the existence of regional production clusters and a generally small farm size. Differences are found in the technology level, with a broad range of very traditional extensive production systems up to highly intensified orchards with high tree density. All countries experienced high fluctuation in apple production quantities over the past years, mainly due to weather events, particularly spring frost and drought, and climate risks are expected to increase in the future, leading to increasing costs for mitigation measure