Sustainable alpine sheep farming in Weiz, Austria

Traditional alpine pasture management characterises the Almenland Teichalm-Sommeralm Nature Park representing one of Central Europe's largest alpine pasture areas. Small family farms and extensive part-time farming dominate the region, with 84% practising alpine agriculture and pasture management. Preserving these small family farms is crucial for the region's economic situation and food production and contributes to protecting biodiversity, which helps buffer environmental shocks. Furthermore, tourism benefits from the conservation of the cultural landscape.

Sheep farming is particularly effective for maintaining steep meadows, as sheep require less water, are lighter, and have distinct grazing behaviours compared to cattle. However, their selective grazing can lead to the overuse of certain areas without proper pasture management. To enhance biodiversity, it is essential to implement extensive and thoughtful grazing practices, such as regularly rotating grazing areas, which decrease selective grazing and avoid over-fertilisation but lead to a higher workload compared to standing pastures, where the sheep graze the same plot for a long time. During droughts heat and scarce precipitation reduce the regeneration potential of the grass, making thoughtful pasture management even more important to ensure required regeneration times. Extensive farming helps buffer climatic shocks, with biodiversity-rich meadows ensuring more reliable yields. In times of fodder shortage farmers reduce herd sizes, rotate animals through small pastures or restore humus.

Areas managed by part-time farmers, especially challenging ones like alpine pastures, are at risk of intensification or abandonment driven by economic factors. To counter this trend, initiatives like the "Weizer Schafbauern" cooperative help farmers reduce their workload by outsourcing processing and marketing while ensuring fair product prices, thus minimising the risk of abandonment and promoting sustainable management practices. The cooperative was founded in 1995 when the local dairy was supposed to close and now includes 150 sheep farmers as members. Its foundation was crucial for the survival of the sheep farmers in Weiz for the following reasons:

a) The cooperative-owned dairy and co-owned slaughterhouse allow farmer independence and ensure fair prices.

b) Joint marketing and introducing their own brand increased their market power compared to being a single farmer.

c) The cooperative has a diversified marketing strategy, including the ongoing development of new products.

Thanks to the cooperative farmers can sell their products directly to consumers, local restaurants, and food retailers, alleviating their workload while ensuring high-quality goods and fair prices. This arrangement enhances the appeal of alpine farming, despite its lower yields compared to other production systems.

In addition to the cooperative, establishing the Almenland initiative further fostered cooperation between farmers, restaurants, and other touristic facilities and thereby further supported the viability of sheep farming in this region. This initiative also provided the basis for the development of the Almenland Nature Park, contributing to landscape preservation and biodiversity protection.