Grassland Switzerland? With pure grassland feeding, poultry and pig stocks would have to shrink by about 90%, dairy cows hardly.

The difference lies in digestion. Ruminants such as cows, sheep, and goats digest low‑nutrient grass through the rumen; pigs and chickens can hardly do that and need energy‑ and protein‑rich feed. This feed is mostly grown on arable land, partly abroad: for beef, sheep, and goats the import share of feed is below 10 percent, for pigs about half, and for poultry about three‑quarters (Baur & Krayer 2021, data 2016–2018). If arable feed disappears, pigs and poultry lose their base feed, while ruminants hardly do. Three independent Swiss studies show the same pattern: FiBL/ETH (2025) and the AgroCheck analysis (Bosshard 2025) quantify the decline for pigs and poultry at roughly 90 percent; the Agroscope study by Probst et al. (2023) shows the same trend, with poultry practically disappearing and the pig herd at least halved. For cattle the picture is mixed: the dairy cow herd would remain almost unchanged (about minus 13 percent), while the less efficient dairy cow system would shrink by roughly three‑quarters. This tempers the grassland picture without dismissing it: it applies to grass‑based milk production, but for the largest part of the meat consumed—pork and poultry meat—there is little effect. The values are model results describing a technical potential, not a forecast.