Financial Performance of Organic Cattle Farming

Summary

FFI/ha on organic cattle rearing farms was 56% higher than on conventional farms due entirely to lower costs of production (€240/ha v €640/ha). However the organic farms were selected as monitor farms and therefore represent the better producers whilst the conventional farms were selected at random. Output and direct payments per ha were higher on conventional farms but not sufficient to cover the additional costs. Organic farms were 24% larger than conventional farms. Organic drystock cattle producers had a more viable socio-economic profile, whilst technical performance was higher on the conventional farms. Organic dairy farms had 7% higher farm income over conventional dairy farmers in 2007. However, these data are based on a small sample and should therefore be interpreted with caution.