The Swiss agent-based model (SWISSland) claims to depict as realistically as possible the 50 000 family farms comprising the whole of Swiss agriculture in all their heterogeneity as regards farm and cost structures as well as farm decision-making behaviour and interactions, with the aim of...

The development of multi-agent models for agriculture has allowed the inclusion of farm decision-making behaviour and interactions in the simulation of smaller agricultural regions. Important methodological impact for this has come in particular from scientists from Germany. Currently under...

Interviews with Swiss farmers lead to the hypotheses that production decisions, also in crop growing, are not made annually, but similarly to investment decisions in the long run. This hypothesis is backed by non-parametric time-series analysis for Switzerland and Germany. This creates a...

Die Entwicklung des Arbeitskräfteeinsatzes von 2000 Schweizer Buchhaltungsbetrieben wird zwischen 2004 und 2009 untersucht. Dabei wird nach dem Einsatz von Familienarbeitskräften innerhalb und außerhalb des Betriebs, Fremdarbeitskräften und Lohnarbeit von Dritten und für Dritte...

The improvement of the sustainable performance of the agricultural sector is a priority of the Swiss agricultural policy. The sustainability of Swiss dairy farms located in the mountainous area might be critical as many of them show a weak performance in the use of their economic and/or social...

Since the introduction of direct payments for suckler cows in 1999, the number of specialized suckler cow farms in Switzerland has seen a significant increase. This paper explains the farm conversions to accommodate suckler cows, specifically taking into account neighborhood influences in...

The paper’s objective is to draw and verify a model of entering farming which integrates both psychological and economic factors. It is argued why first identity related factors (like a preference for working with animals) and later environment-related factors (like the farm’s...

Farmers and butchers in Switzerland both operate in shrinking sectors. The number of businesses and the sectoral turnover has decreased by about 40 per cent over the last twenty years for both sectors. It is, however, an interesting question whether the determinants of exit are the same for the...

The objective of this article is to analyse the trends in on-farm labour use, including own family labour, hired labour and contract work, and to assess the factors driving their evolution in France and in Switzerland during 1990-2007. A particular attention is given to agricultural policies,...