Poster: Organic milk as a sustainability strategy for Finnish milk system

Summary

Dairy farming in Finland is historically a mode of family farming, although modes like dairy farm companies and collaborative farms are increasing. Organic farmers are relatively young, well educated and their farms are modern and in the average, rather large. The use of automated milking systems (AMS) allows larger cattle sizes and makes work easier compared with previous methods. The organic cows’ feed is mainly grown on the farm, which makes organic milk production truly local business. The feeding is based on clover-grass silage, barley, oats, pea and rape-seed, the latter being often commercial. The organic cows produce about 8 000 kg milk yearly featuring a fairly reasonable level of intensity. The relatively small cattle sizes support disease control, and salmonella prevalence is extremely low.