**2. Material and methods**

## **2.1. Study area**

The study area was the *dehesa* located in the region of Extremadura (Southwest of Spain). From a climatic point of view, it enjoys annual average temperatures of 16–17°C, with mild winters (average temperature of 7.5°C) and hot and dry summers (the average mean temperature is greater than 26°C, exceeding 40°C in the hottest months, which correspond to a Mediterranean continental semiarid climate. Its rainfall pattern is irregular (300–800 mm). Soils are shallow, acidic and of low fertility. Due to these characteristics, the availability of grazing resources is reduced and unstable [11–13].

## **2.2. Sample selection**

**1. Introduction**

20 Livestock Science

carried out.

**2.1. Study area**

**2. Material and methods**

reduced and unstable [11–13].

Organic livestock farm numbers have sharply increased in recent years [1] as an adaptive response for increasing farm profitability (through subsidies and price premiums). However, before implementing any production systems, an analysis of the similarities and differences between both the current and the potential new farm configurations should be carried out, since

For this purpose, the methodological process of farm characterisation is essential as it allows in-depth understanding of the operation of livestock production systems, which is key to improving their management, economic performance and overall sustainability. Thus, Rodríguez et al. [2] stated that farm viability relies on specific management practices that are suitable for the specific socioeconomic and environmental context of the farm, and this should be based on the knowledge of the characteristics and performance of the production systems. Subsequently, several researchers have conducted studies for characterising farms according to various parameters. Some authors have focused on livestock species reared on the farms. Thus, different authors [3–10] have studied and characterised beef cattle farms by means of descriptive and/or cluster analysis on the basis of technical, structural, economic and/or social indicator. However, to our knowledge, there are no available studies that comparatively characterise organic and pasture-based or low-input conventional beef cattle farms, contextualizing such analysis within the evolution of the production systems under study. We therefore believe that this is a particularly appropriate time to conduct the present study. This would be of even more interest if the farms studied were located in complex agro-ecosystems with great

value and externalities from the socio-economic and environmental points of view.

The present study was carried out with the following aims: (i) to shed light on the gap of knowledge existing due to the lack of studies that compare the characteristics of conventional and organic beef cattle farms and (ii) to find similarities and differences between organic and low-input conventional beef cattle farms. For this purpose, a characterisation (technical management, structure and economic performance) of the farms located in the '*dehesa*' was

The study area was the *dehesa* located in the region of Extremadura (Southwest of Spain). From a climatic point of view, it enjoys annual average temperatures of 16–17°C, with mild winters (average temperature of 7.5°C) and hot and dry summers (the average mean temperature is greater than 26°C, exceeding 40°C in the hottest months, which correspond to a Mediterranean continental semiarid climate. Its rainfall pattern is irregular (300–800 mm). Soils are shallow, acidic and of low fertility. Due to these characteristics, the availability of grazing resources is

it will provide a wider view of the chances of success after the change.

A sample of farms in the beef cattle sector located in the *dehesa* of Extremadura was selected. Due to a lack of official statistics on figures and locations of *dehesa* farms in Extremadura, the sampling was non-probabilistic by quotas. The number of farms surveyed was 63, in line with other studies analysing livestock production systems [4, 14–17]. Apart from the number of farms, various criteria (already explained by Escribano et al. [17, 18]) were used to select the farms with the aim of obtaining an indicative sample of the various beef cattle production systems located in *dehesas*. The criteria used are summarised below:





**Figure 1.** Dehesa location and different land cover characteristics. Forest fractional cover (FFC): Fraction of the land covered by the vertical projection of the tops of trees.

Finally, 63 farms (30 Conventional and 33 Organic farms were selected, thus achieving: a sample size similar to that of other studies characterising livestock farms [4, 5, 10, 14]; similar sample sizes of organic and conventional farms, thus allowing an adequate comparative analysis of both sectors.

## **2.3. Selection of parameters**

In order to select the most appropriate indicators to analyse the farms under study, two main steps were followed. Firstly, the scientific literature addressing the structural and technicaleconomic points of view was reviewed. The selection of consistent and similar indicators allowed carrying out comparisons with studies on the topic. Moreover, economic parameters were created following the economic accounts for agriculture in the community [19] and the adaptation to dehesa livestock farms already carried out in previous studies [14, 15, 20]. As a consequence, the discussion of the results was consistent and the achievement of the aims of the present study was possible.

Finally, the selected set of indicators were confirmed to be in agreement with the recommendations of Lebacq et al. [21]: relevance, representativeness of the system, measurable, value to the end user, no ambiguity, no redundancy, and predictive.

## **2.4. Data collection**

Data were collected from farms by means of a questionnaire in the year 2010. The questionnaire was developed according to selected indicators. These included information on structure (farms and herd characteristics: sizes, infrastructure, etc.), technical management, production results, economic data and social aspects. Subsequently, data were collected by the first author directly at the farms, followed by structured and semiclosed interviews with farm managers. Farmers' answers were the sources of information for all indicators. All these processes were carried out in accordance with the methodology used by several authors who analysed similar aspects of livestock farms [2, 6, 8, 10, 14, 15, 17, 22–27].

## **2.5. Analysis**

The statistical analyses included descriptive statistics for the full sample of farms. Subsequently, an ANOVA test was applied to all parameters, as all of them are quantitative ones. This allowed comparing all farms following two approaches. First, conventional farms were compared to organic farms in order to compare the two production systems as a whole (Conventional vs. All Organic). Secondly, farms were compared based on three classifications that are explained in the next section: (i) Conventional farms; (ii) Organic 1 farms; (iii) Organic 2 farms. This approach offered insight into each of them, so that more valuable and precise conclusions about the organic beef cattle sector could be made. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS v. 20.
