The alpine region is very suitable for sheep farming, which keeps the landscape open and produces meat by using local resources. However, the market has more potential than currently realised, but the profitability of lamb production needs to be improved. Management changes would allow efficiency gains and could be implemented on farms in the short or medium term. Thus, based on traditional high-quality forage management in the Swiss alpineregion,weanalysedtheprofitabilityoflambproductionsystemsbyfull-costaccountingandbyexamining the economic impact of variables such as productivity, live weight and fattening management for two typical (standardised) farms: 1) farm with 200 sheep (Hill-200) in a hilly area with accelerated lambing and 2) farm with 140 sheep (Mount-140) in a mountainous area with seasonal lambing once per year. In both farm types, conventional breedtypes resulting from displacement crossing were kept on a constant forage area. The analyses were based on accountancy data and face-to-face interviews with farmers on 15 single farms in different regions. For Hill-200, next to other simulated management interventions the most promising was shortening the lambingintervalto240days(3lambingsin2years), resulting in a substantial increase in gross margin (+44%), return on labour (+27 %) and income per hectare (+57 %) compared with the baseline scenario. The carcass weight per hectare increased from 202 to 265 kg. A lambing interval of 240 days compared with seasonal lambing (365 days) increased the income per hectare by 82 %. For Mount-140, the most promising simulated management interventions were increasing the litter size, reducing concentrate input and extending the fattening period. When combined,these interventions resulted in a substantial increase in gross margin (+58 %), return on labour (+38) and income per hectare (+63 %) compared with the baseline scenario. The carcass weight per hectare increased from 153 to 194 kg. The improvements based on our model calculations are practicable by changing the ewe flock to original genetics characterised byhigherprolificacy,lessweightandgreater hardiness. Whencrossedwithrams ofmeaty breeds, these ewes can be expected to produce vigorous hybrid lambs with a similar growth rate and carcass quality compared with lambs of ewes in the current (baseline) systems.
