Livestock farming systems in Hungary with special emphasize on beef cattle production

At the end of the eighties, radical political and economic changes took place in the CEE countries which include Hungary. After more than one decade it can be concluded that agriculture, and most of all animal husbandry, was the victim of this transition. The output of the sector and the livestock population dropped 40-60 per cent and was placed behind crop production with a share of total agricultural production of less than 46%. The same trend can be observed for beef cattle production, however, Hungary has favourable ecological conditions for beef production. The authors summarize the current situation of beef cattle farming in Hungary and point out the opportunities and measures which will need to be taken, based upon farm case studies were carried out in two regions to evaluate beef cattle farming systems on a number of working farms.