Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Grazing-based dairy systems are the dominant dairy production model
in New Zealand, Australia and the European Union [116,117]; however,
not all grazing-based dairies are organic. On a world scale, Dillon et al.
[118] found a strong inverse relationship between costs of production and
proportion of grazed forage in the cow's diet, and reported that Austra-
lia and New Zealand had the greatest proportion of the diet provided by
grass (85%-90%) and the lowest cost of production of all the countries
evaluated. Additionally, the authors noted that increasing the proportion
of grazed grass in a system where pasture was already the predominant
feed will reduce the cost of production. For example, extending the graz-
ing season by 27 days in Irish systems reduced the cost of milk by 1 cent/L
[118]. In Europe, pasture is generally accepted as the cheapest feed source
for dairy cattle and forms the base for profi table low-input systems in this
region [119].
Reliable studies directly comparing the economics of organic and non-
organic milk production in the US are limited, and those studies conducted
previous to the 2010 pasture rule may not apply to the economics of organ-
ic systems today. Butler [120] compared production costs of organic and
non-organic dairy farms in California and found the total cost of milk pro-
duction per cwt (45 kg) was 16% higher in the organic system due largely
to greater feed, labor, herd replacement and transition costs. However, the
authors acknowledged that feed costs, which make up half of total produc-
tion costs, were not as high as expected in the organic systems due to the
utilization of low-cost pasture. A study by Rotz et al. [121] demonstrated
that organic dairies typical of the northeastern US were more profi table
than comparably sized non-organic dairies, but that profi tability depended
on a premium price for organic milk.
4.6.2 ECONOMICS OF BEEF SYSTEMS
The impact of grazing on profitably of the beef industry as a whole is
complicated given the segmentation of a typical animal's life into a cow-
calf suckling/grazing period, a growing/developing period for replace-
ment stock or a growing/fattening period for slaughter stock. More than
