Ranchers or pastoralists? Farm size, specialisation and production strategy amongst cattle farmers in south-eastern Kazakhstan

Robinson, Sarah; Bozayeva, Zhanyl; Mukhamedova, Nozilakhon; Djanibekov, Nodir; Petrick, Martin

doi:10.1186/s13570-021-00217-1

Pastoralism

Research, Policy and Practice

Table 3 Farm characteristics by feeding strategy (means include zeros unless specified in notes)

From: Ranchers or pastoralists? Farm size, specialisation and production strategy amongst cattle farmers in south-eastern Kazakhstan

Variable			Cluster							Test statistic for differences between clusters^#
Variable		HH	1: small sedentary	2: medium mobile	3: medium fodder purchaser	4: medium fodder producer	5: large mobile fodder purchaser	6: large mobile fodder producer	Total farms	Test statistic for differences between clusters^#	Relationship with herd size^α
	N	50	40	56	25	32	27	20	200	LRχ² or F	βlncattle
Livestock	Cattle (head)†	9	12^2,3,5,6	17^1,5,6	22^1,5,6	16^5,6	83^1,2,3,4	89^1,2,3,4	33	223***	1.00***
	Range	1–39	3–34	6–31	5–80	7–34	18–395	32–340	3–395
	Sheep and goats (head)	20	31^5,6	50^5,6	32^5,6	49^5,6	454^1,2,3,4	385^1,2,3,4	132	145***	1.01***
	Livestock units††	66	97^2,5,6	155^1,5,6	134^5,6	138^5,6	979^1,2,3,4	966^1,2,3,4	330	273***	0.99***
	Proportion of cattle in LU	0.60	0.51⁵	0.49	0.60⁵	0.51	0.36^1,4	0.44	0.49	4.79***	−0.00
Land	Cropland (ha)†	1.2	2^4,6	6^3,4,5,6	1^2,4,6	23^1,2,3,5	1^2,4,6	46^1,2,3,5	11	32.5***	0.28***
	Hayland (ha)	4.2	7³	11³	2^1,2,4,5	16³	26³	34³	14	5.8***	0.47***
	Cropland/head cattle (ha)	0.28	0.19⁴	0.42^4,5	0.09^4,6	1.40^1,2,3,5	0.03^2,4,6	0.62^3,5	0.46	12.3***	−0.06*
	Hayland + cropland/head (ha)	0.99	0.91^3,5	0.99^3,5	0.20^1,2,4,6	2.34^3,5	0.35^1,2,4,6	1.05^3,5	1.01	12.2***	−0.09**
	Pasture (ha)^†	6.4	21^2,5,6	74^1,3,5,6	11^2,5,6	36^5,6	318^1,2,3,4	279^1,2,3,4	103	31.5***	1.35***
	Pasture/LU (ha)¤	0.52	0.54	0.63	0.32	0.46	0.40	0.46	0.33	1.27	−0.08
Fodder (kg/head/year)	Total fodder kg/ha	2121	2175^2,6	1377¹	1899⁵	1970⁶	1330³	947^1,4	1647	24.3***	−0.21***
	Roughage, total	1709	2047	1288	1622	1595⁶	1265	783⁴	1477	20.7***	−0.22***
	Concentrate, total	412	128⁴	89^3,4	277^2,5	376^1,2,5,6	65^3,4	164⁴	170	41.4***	−0.11
	Concentrate, purchased†	369	124^4,6	88^4,6	270^4,6	5^1,2,3,5	65⁴	18^1,3,4	94	56.9***	−0.22
	Concentrate, self-produced†	43	4^4,6	1^4,6	7^4,6	371^1,2,3	0	146^1,2,3	76	66.6***	0.01
	Roughage, purchased†	701	425	142	1543^4,6	62^3,5	877⁴	77³	454	18.7***	0.01
	Roughage, self-produced†	1008	1622^3,5	1146^3,5	79^1,2,4,5,6	1533^3,5	388^1,2,3,4	706³	1023	54.7***	−0.47***
	Quality (protein/kg fodder)	90	99	108	103	119⁵	92^4,6	122⁵	107	3.83***	0.00
Mobility	Months on remote pasture†	2	1^2,3,4,5,6	8^1,3,4	5^1,2,5,6	5^1,2,5,6	11^1,3,4	10^1,3,4	6	159.9***	0.37***
	Remote pasture winter (1/0)	0.04	0^-cv	0.36^+cv	0.16	0.19	0.78^+cv	0.70^+cv	0.33	37.2***	1.14***
	Remote pasture summer (1/0)	0.28	0.20^-cv	0.95^+cv	0.64	0.75	0.96^+cv	1.0^+cv	0.73	77.6***	1.13***
	Any mobile stock (1/0)	0.28	0.20^-cv	0.95^+cv	0.60	0.78	0.89	0.95	0.72	79.3***	0.95***
Sales	Cattle (1/0)	0.44	0.33	0.55	0.64	0.38	0.74	0.60	0.52	16.3***	0.77***
	Milk (1/0)	0.10	0.10	0.09	0.20	0.03	0.07	0.05	0.09	5.6	0.09
	Milk products (1/0)	0.04	0.07	0.11	0.08	0	0.11	0.20	0.09	6.6	0.62**
	Beef (1/0)	0.10	0.07	0.09	0.12	0.03	0.15	0.30^+cv	0.11	10.5*	0.61***
	Carcass weight bullocks (kg)¤¤	139	130	150	180	183	157	207	166	2.5**	28.8***

^#Continuous variables: Test statistic likelihood ratio (χ²) values for negative binomial regressions with cluster as the categorial predictor against the variables for livestock numbers, months on pasture, and fodder. For carcass weight, cattle as the proportion of LU, protein content and continuous land variables (log transformed), OLS regression (ANOVA) was used and the F ratio is reported. ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1
Superscripts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 indicate clusters with which a significant difference exists at **p < 0.05 or lower using pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction
^#Binary variables: Pearson’s chi-squared test on variable listed against the cluster, ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1
Superscript +/-cv for binary variables indicates cells with Pearson’s residuals greater than the critical value with Bonferroni correction (+ or − 2.86), indicating contribution to χ²
^αSlope coefficients of regressions of log of cattle ownership against outcome variables. For carcass weight, cattle as the proportion of LU and land variables (the last of which were log transformed), OLS regression was employed; for counts of livestock numbers, months on pasture and kilogramme fodder, negative binomial regressions were used. For binary outcomes, logistic regression was employed, ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1
^†Variable used to create a cluster
^††Livestock units based on Kazakh sheep units (sheep and goat = 1 LU, horse = 6 LU and cattle = 5 LU)
^¤Those with titles or contracts for pastureland indicating area only, n = 132, no zeros
^¤¤Sellers only, N = 48, no zeros

Back to article page