EVNA Operational Group: Economic improvement in livestock farms with native breeds of suckler cows

The low productive efficiency of suckler farms in Spain is a well-known fact. Average fertility (number of calves per cow per year) is 66.55%, well below the EU figures of 82.5%. (A. Sanz, 2013). If productive efficiency is measured by the percentage of weaned calves, these figures range between 55% and 60%.

The main factors that exert a competitive limitation on these farms are:

- Technical characteristics: the low productivity of suckler cows, the limited use of specialized genetics, the limited use of innovative reproductive management techniques such as artificial insemination, embryo transfer, or the use of sexed semen, and the limited use of reproductive controls in beef cattle, among others.

- Economic nature: the low profit margins of this type of livestock farming and the high production costs that compromise the viability of the farms.

The innovative project aims to improve the economic performance of native breed cattle farms to ensure their competitiveness and survival.