Generic Relationships between Field Uses and Their Geographical Characteristics in Mountain-Area Dairy Cattle Farms

In mountain farms, challenges posed by the degree of land slope, altitude and harsh climate further compound multiple other possible constraints, particularly in relation to distance farm from farmstead. This study focused on how mountain-area dairy farmers factor geographical characteristics their fields into field-use decisions. To that end, we surveyed 72 who traditional Salers breed cattle 28 specialised system central Massif region, France. Information was collected uses all grassland (n = 2341) throughout entire outdoor grazing season, without identifying farmers’ rationales for Field-use classes were constructed per group (grazed-only, cut-only, grazed-and-cut) then used classify specialized system. The characteristics, which associated afterwards, significantly different between field groups classes. Grazed-only found be more sloping cut-only smaller Distance/area combinations according use (animal category, earliness first cut, cutting sequence) decisive allowed identification generic relationships farms.