Role of input self-sufficiency in the economic and environmental sustainability of specialised dairy farms

Abstract

Increasing input self-sufficiency is often viewed as a target to improve sustainability of dairy farms. However, few studies have specifically analysed input self-sufficiency, by including several technical inputs and without only focussing on animal feeding, in order to explore its impact on farm sustainability. To address this gap, our work has three objectives as follows: (1) identifying the structural characteristics required by specialised dairy farms located in the grassland area to be self-sufficient; (2) analysing the relationships between input self-sufficiency, environmental and economic sustainability; and (3) studying how the farms react to a decrease in milk price according to their self-sufficiency degree. Based on farm accounting databases, we categorised 335 Walloon specialised conventional dairy farms into four classes according to their level of input self-sufficiency. To this end, we used as proxy the indicator of economic autonomy -that is, the ratio between costs of inputs related to animal production, crop production and energy use and the total gross product. Classes were then compared using multiple comparison tests and canonical discriminant analysis. A total of 30 organic farms -among which 63% had a high level of economic autonomy -were considered separately and compared with the most autonomous class. We showed that a high degree of economic autonomy is associated, in conventional farms, with a high proportion of permanent grassland in the agricultural area. The most autonomous farms used less input -especially animal feeding -for a same output level, and therefore combined good environmental and economic performances. Our results also underlined that, in a situation of decrease in milk price, the least autonomous farms had more latitude to decrease their input-related costs without decreasing milk production. Their incomes per work unit were, therefore, less impacted by falling prices, but remained lower than those of more autonomous farms. In such a situation, organic farms kept stable incomes, because of a slighter decrease in organic milk price. Our results pave the way to study the role of increasing input self-sufficiency in the transition of dairy farming systems towards sustainability. Further research is required to study a wide range of systems and agro-ecological contexts, as well as to consider the evolution of farm sustainability in the long term.

Sources of variation of the environmental impact of cereal-based intensive beef finishing herds

“…nitrogen and phosphorus) utilisation has been widely investigated (Rotz 2004;de Boer et al 2011). Other characteristics of the beef diets, such as the feedstuffs self-sufficiency rate, have been less studied (Lebacq et al 2015). The implementation of mitigation strategies at the farm level has to be shaped on the specific characteristics of each regional livestock system (Gerber et al 2015).…”

The Relationship of Dairy Farm Eco-Efficiency with Intensification and Self-Sufficiency. Evidence from the French Dairy Sector Using Life Cycle Analysis, Data Envelopment Analysis and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling

“…higher production per unit of input so that increases in outputs outweigh potential increases in inputs and environmental impacts; and (ii) the farm’s degree of self-sufficiency, i.e. its capacity to produce goods from its own resources [21], so that decreases in inputs and environmental impacts outweigh likely decreases in outputs. In fact, self-sufficiency, with higher control over nutrient recycling and thus minimization of losses to the environment, can be considered as a key agro-ecological principle, central to improving the sustainability of livestock systems [23].…”

Productivity and technical efficiency of suckler beef production systems: trends for the period 1990 to 2012

“…This potential economic fragility pushes livestock farmers to aim for more sustainable, resilient and self-sufficient production systems (Lebacq et al, 2014), chiefly via strategies for farm-scale feed selfsufficiency (Ryschawy et al, 2013;Coquil et al, 2014;Havet et al, 2014). Feed self-sufficiency is widely associated with livestock systems that are low-input with a high profitability (Ripoll-Bosch et al, 2014) and that create value added (Garambois and Devienne, 2012), including grass-based farm systems.…”