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Livestock

The management of permanent grassland in combination with livstock farming is the most common economic system in the Alpine regions. Due to more favourable climatic terms and site conditions  livestock farming is replaced by the cultivation of permanent crops in the inneralpine valleys and at the southern frings of the Alps as well as in some regions at the western Alps.

In the northern German speaking part of the Alps, cattle-breeding is the common practice. On the opposite goats- and sheep-breeding is  rampant in the Mediterranean Alpine regions (e.g. French Sea-Alps). The calculated livestock-density (livestock-units related to the area of permanent grassland) indicates those regions where the animal-production is operated intensively (see map below).

The high livestock-densities in the Bavarian Alpine area, the northern Alpine fringes of Switzerland and the eastern fringes of the Austrian Alps are compensated by areas in France and Italy with lower densities. Particularly the French Alpine area is characterised by a very heterogeneous livestock structure. Thereby does in the northern parts of the French Alps cattle-breeding dominate, whereas in the southern parts goat- and sheep-breeding is more common.

 Livestock density on municipality level within  the Alpine Convention area (2000)