Joint technical and economic assessment of feed autonomy in organic cattle farms

Abstract

Increasing the level of feed autonomy (self-sufficiency) is usually considered as a prerequisite for conversion of cattle farms to organic farming. Technically it requires adjusting fodder production and feed purchases in terms of quantity and quality to the requirements of the herd. A joint technical and economic assessment of feed autonomy in organic cattle farms was conducted. Data were collected in 2014 and 2015 on 11 Belgian farms located in distinct agricultural regions and characterised by different proportions of grassland area. Dry matter yield and nutritional quality were determined at each harvest for each fodder crop, including permanent and temporary grasslands, immature cereal-legume crops and grain crops. Animal productions and economic data, including all cash inflows and outflows, were recorded. Economically efficient farms had high levels of feed autonomy, ranging from 89 to 100%. Three economically-efficient feeding strategies were identified for organic cattle production. Strategies differed from each other according to the proportion of grassland area, level of animal production and the achieved level of feed autonomy.

Full text

742 Grassland Science in Europe, Vol. 23 – Sustainable meat and milk production from grasslands
Joint technical and economic assessment of feed autonomy in
organic cattle farms
Faux A., Guillaume M., Decruyenaere V. and Stilmant D.
Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, rue de Liroux 9, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Abstract
Increasing the level of feed autonomy (self-suciency) is usually considered as a prerequisite for
conversion of cattle farms to organic farming. Technically it requires adjusting fodder production and
feed purchases in terms of quantity and quality to the requirements of the herd. A joint technical and
economic assessment of feed autonomy in organic cattle farms was conducted. Data were collected in
2014 and 2015 on 11 Belgian farms located in distinct agricultural regions and characterised by dierent
proportions of grassland area. Dry matter yield and nutritional quality were determined at each harvest
for each fodder crop, including permanent and temporary grasslands, immature cereal-legume crops
and grain crops. Animal productions and economic data, including all cash inows and outows, were
recorded. Economically ecient farms had high levels of feed autonomy, ranging from 89 to 100%.
ree economically-ecient feeding strategies were identied for organic cattle production. Strategies
diered from each other according to the proportion of grassland area, level of animal production and
the achieved level of feed autonomy.
Keywords: grassland, dairy farm, beef farm, organic, feed autonomy, economic eciency
Introduction
Increasing the level of feed autonomy (self-suciency) is usually considered as a prerequisite for
conversion of cattle farms to organic farming. e EU policy imposes that animals raised in organic
conditions have permanent access to pastures or rough fodder. High prices of organic feeds encourage
farmers to limit feed purchases as much as possible. Increasing the level of feed autonomy is not easy to
complete. It requires adjusting fodder production and feed purchases in terms of quantity and quality to
the requirements of the herd which depend on the animal performances. e right adjustment is found
when the dierence between incomes and total feed costs is maximised. Options for fodder production
are grazed pastures, temporary grasslands, immature cereal-legume crops, grain cereal crops and protein
crops, each of them with a large diversity of options regarding the species composition. e choice of
fodder crops is constrained by the agro-ecological conditions of the cultivation area.
To date, feed autonomy in Walloon cattle farms has been studied from technical or economic data
independently (Bernes et al., 2011; Lebacq et al., 2014). In this paper, a joint technical and economic
assessment of feed autonomy in organic cattle farms was conducted in order to identify ecient strategies
for organic cattle production.
Materials and methods
Data were collected in 2014 and 2015 on 11 organic farms, six dairy and ve beef farms. Farms were
located in distinct agricultural regions in Wallonia (Belgium) and numbered by type of production, milk
(M) or beef (B), and increasing percentage of permanent grassland area (PPG) in the total cultivated area
(Table 1). Out of the beef farms, farms B2, B4 and B5 were sucklers only (‘breeders’), while B1 and B3
were also fatteners (‘breeders-fatteners’).
Fodder production was characterised in terms of quantity and nutritional quality (Van Es, 1975;
Tamminga et al., 1994). Dry matter (DM) production from grazed pastures was estimated by analysing

Grassland Science in Europe, Vol. 23 – Sustainable meat and milk production from grasslands 743
grazing calendars using the model developed by Delagarde et al. (2017). For dairy farms, milk production
was recorded by the farmer and expressed per dairy cow. For beef farms, the annual liveweight production
was calculated over the entire herd and expressed per suckler cow. is was achieved by taking into
account livestock variations and by estimating the weight of each animal as a function of its age using
a growth model parameterized on breed-respective data. All cash in- and outows were recorded. For
the sake of comparability, feed production costs were restricted to crop inputs and fodder storage costs.
Dierent indicators were computed to assess the farm performances. ose included the level of feed
autonomy (FA) and the weighted average crude protein (CP) content of self-produced and purchased
DM. e technical feed eciency (TE) was computed as the ratio between total amount of produced
milk or liveweight and total amount of consumed DM. e economic feed eciency (EE) was computed
as one minus the ratio between total feed cost (feed production costs and feed purchases) and gross
product without subsidies. Finally, the cost price of consumed self-produced dry matter (CostP-self)
and the cost price of the total consumed feeds (CostP-tot) were computed. Data were analysed using
the R soware.
Results and discussion
e PPG increased from 33 to 100% in dairy farms and from 62 to 86% in beef farms (Table 1). Dairy
farms M5 and M6, located in Ardenne, had permanent grasslands only. Grain cereal crops were found
in all farms with the exception of M5 and M6 and two beef farms, B2 and B5. Average dry matter
yields, computed over grazed pastures and fodder and grain crops, were highest in farms located in the
Loam region (M1 and B1) and lowest in farms located in Famenne (M3 and B2). In terms of animal
productions, farms M1 and B1 were the most intensive ones, and, on the opposite, farms M2 and B2,
B4, and B5, the least intensive ones.
FA ranged between 78 and 100%, with highest levels found in farms M1, M2, B1, B3 and B4 (≥ 98%)
and lowest levels in farms M3 and B2, located in Famenne. e average CP content of self-produced
feed increased from 11.5 to 17%. It was highest in M5 and M6, the two farms that included permanent
grasslands only. e average CP content of purchased feeds was highest in farms M1 and B1, which
were also characterised by the highest TE. Farms with high TE also had high EE but no relationship was
observed between TE and EE.
A focus was put on farms with EE higher than 80% (thus farms M3 and B2 were discarded). Economically
ecient farms had high FA, ranging from 89 to 100%. FA was lower in farms with only grasslands (P
< 0.001). ese farms were also characterised by lower CostP-self (P < 0.05). e relationship between
CostP-tot and PPG was not signicant, suggesting that low CostP-self were at least partly compensated
by larger feed purchases.
Based on this survey we identied three economically-ecient feeding strategies for organic cattle
production. Strategy 1 is characterised by a grass-based production with FA of 89-94%. It includes
dairy farms with an intermediate milk production level and breeder beef farms (farms M5, M6 and B5).
Strategy 2 is characterised by a multiple crops-based production with FA of 94-99%. It includes dairy
farms with a high milk production level and breeder-fattener beef farms (farms M1, M4, B1 and B3).
Strategy 3 is characterised by both grassland and crop productions, with FA close to 100%. It includes
dairy farms with a relatively low milk production level and breeder beef farms (farms M2 and B4).

744 Grassland Science in Europe, Vol. 23 – Sustainable meat and milk production from grasslands
Conclusion
is study focused on the joint analysis of technical and economic data from organic dairy and beef
farms. Based on 11 farms analysed over two years, it enabled three distinct economically-ecient feeding
strategies to be identied for organic cattle production.
References
Bernes, A., Cremer, S., Amerlynck, D., Decruyenaere, V., Clément, C., Jamar, D., Hennart, S. and Stilmant, D. (2011) Analyse de la
valorisation des ressources auto-produites que représentent les fourrages et engrais de ferme au sein d’exploitation d’élevage d’un
parc naturel en Belgique. 3R, 18: 305-308.
Delagarde, R., Caillat, H. and Fortin, J. (2017) HerbValo, une méthode pour estimer dans chaque parcelle la quantité d’herbe
valorisée par les ruminants au pâturage. Journées de Printemps de l’AFPF, Paris.
Lebacq, T., Baret, P. and Stilmant, D. (2014) Role of input self-suciency in the economic and environmental sustainability of
specialised dairy farms. Animal:1-9.
Tamminga, S., Van Straalen, W.M., Subnel, A.P.J., Meijer, R.G.M., Steg , A., Wever, C.J.G. and Block, M.C. (1994) e Dutch protein
evaluation system: the DVE/OEB-system. Livestock Production Science 40, 139-155.
Van Es, A.J.H. (1975) Feed evaluation of dairy cows. Livestock Production Science 2, 95-107.
Table 1. Fodder productions, animal productions and technical and economic performance of 11 organic cattle farms in Belgium, over two
years, 2014 and 2015.
Milk farms1Beef farms1
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
Agricultural region Loam
region
Sandyloam
region
Famenne Ardenne Ardenne Ardenne Loam
region
Famenne Ardenne Ardenne Condroz
Fodder production
Permanent grasslands (%) 33 48 63 78 100 100 62 68 72 81 86
Temporary grasslands (%) 37 15 14 6 0 0 10 3 19 6 14
Immature cereal-legume crops(%) 0 9 9 0 0 0 18 29 0 0 0
Grain cereal crops(%)230 27 14 9 0 0 5 0 9 13 0
Protein crops(%) 0 0 0 7 0 0 5 0 0 0 0
Average dry matter yield (kg DM ha-1) 7,381 5,509 4,220 4,980 6,329 5,607 7,208 3,702 4,530 5,200 5,926
Animal productions
Milk production (kg milk dairy cow-1 year-1) 7,292 3,629 5,267 6,596 5,263 5,466 - - - - -
Beef production (kg liveweight suckler cow-1
year-1)
- - - - - - 618 239 332 227 227
Animal production sale price (€ kg milk or
liveweight-1)
0.45 0.36 0.56 0.43 0.49 0.48 3.33 1.38 1.71 1.69 1.91
Technical and economic performances
Stocking rate (LU ha-1) 31.34 1.43 1.09 1.14 0.98 1.18 1.90 1.02 0.93 1.24 1.68
Level of feed autonomy (%) 99 100 78 94 93 89 98 85 98 99 94
Crude protein content of self-produced DM (%) 14.6 14.2 13.8 15.6 17.0 16.8 15.4 13.4 13.8 11.5 13.0
Crude protein content of purchased DM (%) 48.8 0 13.6 11.2 12.2 15.1 25.5 14.5 15.9 4.7 11.4
Feed technical eciency (kg of milk or
liveweight/100 kg of consumed DM)
73.5 64.3 64.9 85.4 67.3 70.6 8.4 6.0 5.6 4.7 3.9
Feed economic eciency (%) 89.3 80.7 61.8 83.8 92.4 89.3 87.3 47.3 89.1 91.2 89.1
Cost price of self-produced feed (€ tDM-1) 27.0 36.6 69.2 21.7 8.0 17.0 17.2 26.4 9.1 4.4 13.0
Cost price of total consumed feed (€ tDM-1) 36.8 46.6 139.5 53.9 26.8 40.0 33.9 40.4 18.5 5.8 15.6
1 Farms are numbered according to their % of permanent grasslands. Out of the beef farms, farms B2, B4 and B5 are sucklers only (‘breeders’), while B1 and B3 are also fatteners
(‘breeders-fatteners’); 2 Grain cereal crops include both pure cereal crops and cereal-legume mixtures cultivated for grain.; 3 LU - livestock unit.