5 Conclusions
The present survey undertaken in 12 selected districts
of Northeast Thailand clearly demonstrated that beef
bu ffaloes and beef cattle are an essential part of the inte-grated crop-livestock farming systems in terms of cash
income, savings and social status, whereby increasing
herd sizes are associated with improved livelihoods and
social status. However, the animals’ roles vary between
small-, medium- and large-scale farms. Family mem-bers play a major role for different activities of livestock
farming with work force being hired mainly by medium-and large-scale farms. Due to the strong competition
between livestock and crop production farmers depend
largely on the availability of communal grazing areas
to feed their beef animals. In order to improve farm-ers’ livelihoods and develop sustainable farming sys-tems in Northeast Thailand, the changing economic cir-cumstances of cattle and especially buffalo production
should receive more attention of researchers, govern-mental institutions and stakeholders.