Regional differences in reindeer herding operations in Finland

Abstract

In the Finnish reindeer herding area, there is variation in production efficiency. The efficiency depends on herding operations; therefore, it is important to understand how management and selection is practised in the different parts of the herding area. We studied the regional differences in production environment, management and selection, using the information on (1) the interviews of the managers of the reindeer herding cooperatives and (2) the official statistics on the cooperatives. In the northernmost region, there are larger herds, higher animal density and less need for extra feeding. Predation causes losses in the east and restricts the full utilization of the selection potential. Selection and the optimization of herd composition are considered in all the regions as the most important herding operations. The selection criteria are similar in the regions. In conclusion, the guidelines for coordinated selection as an integrated part of management may be common across the regions.

Keywords:

• Reindeer
• Rangifer tarandus
• selection
• management

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the managers of reindeer herding cooperatives of their time, valuable information and interest; Reindeer Herders’ Association (Anna-Leena Jänkälä) for statistics; Taina Lilja for help in planning of interviews; Florent Baty for guidance in principal component analyses; two anonymous reviewers for their very useful comments that greatly improved the manuscript, and last but not least: Raisio Plc Research Foundation for the financial support.