de Andrade Moral, Rafael and Azevedo, Fernanco C.C. and Verdade, Luciano M. (2016) The use of sheepdogs in sheep production in southeastern Brazil. Pastoralism Research, Policy and Practice, 6 (18).

Preview

Download (676kB) | Preview

Abstract

This study assessed the economic value of using sheepdogs as livestock guardians in southeastern Brazil by implementing a semi-structured interview format divided into four main categories: maintenance costs of sheep production, selling prices of carcasses, annual rate of depredation, and sheepdog acquisition and maintenance costs. According to our results, producers perceive the “unproductive” costs of sheepdogs similarly to the way they view taxes. However, management using sheepdogs as herd guardians tends to be most profitable for herds above 483 head from the fourth year on, being possibly more stable and predictable over time. In contrast, management without sheepdogs shows stochastic dynamics with occasional, though unpredictable, episodes of sheep depredation. This means that sheep farmers follow a cyclical decision strategy, which basically depends on the purchase price of the sheepdog.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Keywords:	Ecological management; Livestock depredation; Neotropics; Puma; Sheep industry;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Mathematics and Statistics
Item ID:	10005
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-016-0065-x
Depositing User:	Rafael de Andrade Moral
Date Deposited:	25 Sep 2018 15:46
Journal or Publication Title:	Pastoralism Research, Policy and Practice
Publisher:	Springer Open
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	https://pastoralismjournal.springeropen....
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads