Innovative Technology and Sustainable Development of Organic - 1.
Innovative Technology and Sustainable Development of Organic - 1.
Innovative Technology and Sustainable Development of Organic - 1.
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level for AMS compared to CMS farms had other reasons. The milking frequency is lower than the<br />
milking frequency found in a study for conventional herds with AMS done in 2006 which showed an<br />
average <strong>of</strong> 2.8 (±0.3). The reason for the somewhat lower milking frequency among organic farms with<br />
AMS could be the grazing (Ketelaar-De Lauwere et al., 2000).<br />
3.3.2 Economic Performance<br />
Annual milk yield delivered to the dairy per cow was higher for AMS than for CMS farms (P = 0.003,<br />
see Table 2). However, economic indicators did not differ between AMS <strong>and</strong> CMS farms. In addition,<br />
all costs were calculated per kilogram <strong>of</strong> milk produced <strong>and</strong> delivered, but no differences were found<br />
between AMS <strong>and</strong> CMS farms, reflecting the large variation between farms.<br />
Table 2. Mean results <strong>of</strong> economic indicators for dairy farms with an automatic milking system (AMS)<br />
<strong>and</strong> a conventional milking system (CMS) in 2005 (SD in parentheses)<br />
Indicator Dimension AMS CMS P value<br />
Milk yield, delivered<br />
1)<br />
ECM per cow 8,539 (557) 7,302 (880) 0.003*<br />
2)<br />
Financial result € × 1,000 161 (54) 123 (69) 0.21<br />
3)<br />
Gross margin € per cow 2,719 (385) 2,258 (532) 0.27<br />
Unit (variable)costs € per cow 1,253 (428) 1,023 (428) 0.24<br />
Fixed costs € per cow 1,221 (367) 1,275 (278) 0.73<br />
4)<br />
Financing costs € per cow 620 (259) 723 (329) 0.47<br />
Debts % <strong>of</strong> net worth 46 (18) 56 (13) 0.26<br />
1)<br />
ECM: energy corrected milk, milk yield st<strong>and</strong>ardized for fat <strong>and</strong> protein content<br />
(see Sjaunja et al., 1990).<br />
2)<br />
Financial result is the gross income (from milk, animals, meat, <strong>and</strong> other<br />
production) minus fixed costs (maintenance, wages, energy) plus unit costs<br />
(feed, fertilizer, contract work).<br />
3)<br />
Gross margin is total income per cow minus the unit costs per cow <strong>and</strong><br />
unit costs for the young stock necessary to maintain the herd.<br />
4)<br />
Financing costs are interest costs on loans <strong>and</strong> investments <strong>and</strong> depreciation.<br />
Fixed costs did not differ between AMS <strong>and</strong> CMS farms, neither per cow (P = 0.73), nor per hectare<br />
(P = 0.48), nor per kilogram <strong>of</strong> milk produced (P = 0.46). This was rather surprising, as AMS is<br />
generally assumed to be costly compared with CMS. Maintenance <strong>and</strong> service costs can be higher<br />
because <strong>of</strong> technical <strong>and</strong> novelty problems, <strong>and</strong> updates. In addition, feeding costs have been reported<br />
to be higher per cow on AMS farms (Wegge et al., 2007), but the unit costs per cow measured in this<br />
study, which were the same for CMS <strong>and</strong> AMS farms, do not indicate this. Financial result <strong>and</strong> gross<br />
margin per cow did not differ between AMS <strong>and</strong> CMS farms. In many other studies not concerned with<br />
organic dairy, the AMS farms’ economic results were inferior to the CMS farms’ results (Rotz et al.,<br />
2003; Meijering et al., 2004), although they are mainly based on model studies. Table 1 shows that<br />
stocking rate <strong>of</strong> AMS farms had a tendency to be lower than CMS farms (P = 0.16). Nicholas et al.<br />
(2004) found that a low stocking rate was associated with better economic performance. In this study,<br />
however, a correlation between financial result <strong>and</strong> stocking rate was not found (R 2 = 0.01); possibly it<br />
Thesis Frank W. Oudshoorn 47