Today, in Austria, we stepped off of our bus and into the middle of a postcard. High up in the mountains, the scenery fulfilled every stereotype I’ve ever had about this country. Cow bells could be heard in the distance. A babbling brook twisted alongside the roadway. Every home was a flower-laden chalet and, to the eye’s delight was mountain after mountain after mountain. I could have stayed there forever.

What made it even more unusual was that we were touring an average mountain beef farm. I’ve been to a lot of impressive beef farms in Ontario but none have the view of these, to be sure.

Set 1,300 metres above sea level, these beef farmers deal with more than their share of challenges. The Alpine pastures that they’re using are much less productive than pastures lower down which means that each animal requires at least 0.7 hectares of land for grazing.. This results in very few cattle in very large fields. Cattle are put out to pasture in May and brought back to the barns in September before the snow flies. They’re usually marketed at about two years of age and, like Canadian animals, are bred for meat and marbling characteristics. They have other features bred into them too, though, that are designed for the Alpine climate. Good hoofs that can manage on the mountainsides is a critical need.

Of course they’re not farming on the scale of Canadian beef farms. The first farm we toured had 59 head of cattle. The second had closer to 80 cows and calves which makes them both larger than the typical Austrian beef farmer.

Until about twenty years ago, the Austrian government provided large subsidies to farmers who marketed their animals to destinations in Egypt, Libya and Burma. They finally realized, though, that those animals could spend upwards of three weeks in transit on a ship and eventually discontinued the practice for obvious animal welfare issues.

Now, farmers are working within cooperatives to promote branded beef products that are sold within their own country, where beef demand is high. The first farm was part of a cooperative raising a rare breed of cattle called Murbodner. Their branded product name is Almo and they currently have a demand for their product that exceeds supply by more than 20%. There are currently 520 farmers producing Almo beef and the average farmer will market between eight and nine animals each year. The program is clearly successful with the price for Almo beef being about four Euros/kilogram higher than the price that conventional beef farmers are receiving.

The second farmer we visited, located even higher in the mountains, has begun a small restaurant that caters to the tourists that come to hike in the hills. This has become an important addition to his farming income because, as he told us, it’s hard to make a living raising beef cattle in the mountains. It’s also interesting to note that in Austria, only 25% of farmers work full time on their farm and that number is decreasing all the time as farmers try to find other ways of supplementing their incomes.

He was refreshingly honest about his farming situation stating, “It’s important that government subsidizes this type of agriculture because without it, we couldn’t exist.” And subsidize they do. Throughout Austria, we were told that farmers receive an average subsidy of 50 Euros for every hectare of land they are farming. Grants are also available to help with the costs of capital expenditures like new barns or watering equipment. The beef farmer estimated that for the average Austrian farmer, 2/3 of their income would come from subsidies – a surprising amount to be sure.

More farm tours will be held in the days to come.

Kelly Daynard is Program Manager for the Ontario Farm Animal Council. Her trip to the IFAJ conference is being sponsored by Monsanto and the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation.