Environmental factors that affect sheep production in Brazil

Sheep were originally brought to Brazil approximately 500 years ago from Europe and Northern Africa; they adapted quickly to their new environments and developed unique traits. The objective of this study was to correlate environmental variables with sheep production in Brazil to promote the development of this activity. Brazil has several distinct environments as shown in this paper. These variables included vegetation cover (NDVI), precipitation, temperature, altitude, relative humidity (RH), solar radiation and the temperature humidity index (THI). Correlation analyses were performed with environmental variables and production levels at national and regional level. A factor analysis was performed to characterize the covariance between variables. We formed groups (clusters) due to productivity levels and performed canonical discriminant analyses to determine which variables were associated with different levels of production. The municipalities with the highest levels of sheep production were selected to define the intervals of each environmental variable. A map was drafted in ArcGis 9.3 to illustrate the landscape features where the highest levels of production are located. The results showed that, nationally, production is influenced by a great diversity of environments, thus masking possible correlations. When the correlation analysis was carried out by region, significant correlations were observed. Cluster analysis identified two dominant, clearly separated producing regions (northeast and south). The canonical analysis indicated that the most important variables delineating the clusters were precipitation, THI, temperature and RH. The map showing the landscape features where the highest production levels are located indicated that the breeds in the northeast are reared on an area of approximately 900,000 km2, while those from the south are reared on an area of approximately 1,100 million km2. This study showed that it is important to consider the environmental characteristics of different regions of Brazil when proposing public policies related to sheep production.