Suckler sheep on organic farming compared to conventional farming: a monitoring network of farms to study the functioning and the technical and economic results.

Summary

The aim of this network is to study the functioning of organic suckler ewe farms and their technical and economic results. They are compared to conventional farms to point at the specificities of these farms and focus at key determinants. As the context on organic farming is evolving a lot (market, techniques, structures of farms…), these studies are made on the long term.
The study is based on a monitoring network of an average 20 organic farms and 35 conventional each year. Economic and technical data are recorded on the farms twice a year and analyzed according the methodology of our unit based on the relationship between functioning, technical data and economic results. The data of some organic farms come from partners institutions and are treated according the same methodology.
The observation over 3 years (2000-2003) showed the specificity of the organic farming (OF) farms, while confirming that the main factors of the margin per ewe and those of the revenue are the same as on conventional farming. However, on OF farms, the quantity of concentrates consumed is decisive for the gross margin per ewe, given their price, 1.8 times higher than that on conventional farms. This may be reduced by an improved valorisation of the fodder production. The gain of the sale of lambs in OF has decreased over the last 3 years, reaching only 16% in mountainous zones and 0% in plains, in 2002. The revenue of organic farmers (Without the CTE aid) is 39% lower in mountainous zones and 57% lower in plains than that of conventional farmers. The margin per ewe, work productivity and structural costs are decisive for the revenue. In the current context that favours conventional lambs, permitting only a small gain for OF lambs, the development or the only maintenance of OF farms will be possible with long term aid including environmental aspects, and maybe, the health value of the products which remains to be shown.