Organic large scale dairy farming – a model study of the effect of stocking rate and distance from dairy facilities to farm land on productivity, nutrient balance and economic result

Summary in the original language of the document

Organic livestock farms, at least in the northern part of Europe, are dominated by rather specialized units with production based on only one type of livestock, as dairy cows. The specialization is followed by a steady increase in size of the production unit, both in number of livestock and area belonging to the farm. In Denmark has the average organic dairy farm changed from 83 cows and 100 ha in 2000 to 136 cows and 172 ha in 2010; also production per cow has increased in this period from 6825 kg milk annually to 8100 kg in 2010. Such rather large changes over a decade often results in layout of the farm with long distance from the dairy facilities to the farm land. In organic dairy farming this is especially challenging as the dairy herd need to have access to pasture during the summer period. In the present regulation () it is stated that “over a period of at least 150 days the cows need to have a intake of not less than 6 SFU (identical to 7.85 MJ NEL) daily from pasture”. Another challenge is the transport of manure and roughage between the dairy facilities and the distant areas, as the major part of the feed in organic dairy production has to be roughage (). From a crop production perspective the challenge is to establish a crop rotation at the near area with a high proportion of pasture, without compromising the productivity and creation of a large surplus of nutrient and on the other hand at the distant area to insure sufficient application of manure and
incorporation of clover‐grass in the rotation. The last issue being a challenge due to the transport cost of manure to the fields and roughage from the fields to the dairy facilities.