Conversion of french suckler cattle farms to organic farming: adaptation of the system and its economic consequences

Summary

French suckler farmers need advice on the impact of the conversion to OF. To help them with their decision-making process, we constructed an LP model that optimises the farming system, taking OF constraints and nitrogen balance into account. According to the model, the shift to OF had a greater impact on a mixed crop-livestock farm system than on that of a grassland farm. As a result of the very high cost of organic N fertiliser and the necessity of maintaining the N balance, the shift to OF in the case of the mixed farm resulted in less emphasis on cereal and more emphasis on livestock. For this type of farm, a significant drop in its proportional costs due to extensification was sufficient to maintain the overall gross margin of the holding. For the extensive grassland farm, the production system remained almost the same after the conversion. In this case, only a slight area extensification was needed. Costs increased due to the higher price of the concentrates purchased, and a 30% increase of the selling price of the meat was therefore necessary to maintain the overall gross margin.