Strategies for success – contrasting approaches to organic dairy farming

Kurzfassung

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Financial and some physical aspects of ten commercial dairy farms with different management approaches and at different stages of organic conversion were monitored, alongside two herds at a research farm. One herd at the research farm was managed to maximize profit, the other aimed for self-sufficiency to maximize sustainability. Dairy enterprise gross margins per forage hectare varied from £824 to £1,851/ha and overhead costs ranged from £606 to £1,022/ha on the commercial farms, illustrating the necessity for control of overhead costs as well as enterprise performance in achieving profitability on organic farms.