IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v104y2011i7p541-550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The profitability and risk of dairy cow wintering strategies in the Southland region of New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Beukes, P.C.
  • Gregorini, P.
  • Romera, A.J.
  • Dalley, D.E.

Abstract

A survey amongst stakeholders in 2007 identified wintering systems with less environmental impact and a reliable supply of high quality feed, which are cost effective and simple to implement, as one of the top three issues requiring research and demonstration in the Southland region of New Zealand. This study used a modelling approach to examine the cost effectiveness, exposure to climate-induced risk and major economic drivers of four selected wintering strategies, i.e. (1) grazing a forage brassica crop on support land (Brassica system), (2) grazing pasture on support land (All pasture system), (3) cows fed grass silage, made on the support land, on a loafing pad where effluent is captured (Standoff system), and (4) cows fed grass silage, made on the support land, in a housed facility where effluent is captured (Housed system). The model was driven by virtual climate data generated by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and economic input data from the DairyNZ Economics Group for the 08/09 season with a milk price of NZ$4.551/kg milksolids (fat + protein). The Housed system had the highest average (± STDEV) operating profit (profit after depreciation but before interest charges) over 35 independently simulated climate years (NZ$743 ± 122/ha), followed by All pasture (NZ$681 ± 197/ha), Standoff (NZ$613 ± 135/ha) and Brassica (NZ$599 ± 212/ha). This ranking was sensitive to the assumptions and treatment of capital costs. The Housed system was the least exposed to climate-induced risk with a coefficient of variation of operating profit of 16% compared to 35% of the Brassica system. The four systems demonstrated different financial strengths and weaknesses that largely balanced out in the end. The Brassica system is a high risk system from an environmental perspective and the All pasture system an unlikely alternative because of scarcity of suitable land. Both the Housed and Standoff systems appear to be cost effective alternatives that allow high control over cow feeding, body condition and comfort over winter. Furthermore, both systems have the potential to provide high control over the storage and release of animal effluent onto land, thus saving fertiliser costs and reducing environmental footprint.

Suggested Citation

  • Beukes, P.C. & Gregorini, P. & Romera, A.J. & Dalley, D.E., 2011. "The profitability and risk of dairy cow wintering strategies in the Southland region of New Zealand," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(7), pages 541-550, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:104:y:2011:i:7:p:541-550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X11000576
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCall, D. G. & Bishop-Hurley, G. J., 2003. "A pasture growth model for use in a whole-farm dairy production model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 1183-1205, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Diana Andone, 2017. "Financial Performance Analysis In Listed Companies," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 195-203, July.
    2. Kalaugher, Electra & Beukes, Pierre & Bornman, Janet F. & Clark, Anthony & Campbell, David I., 2017. "Modelling farm-level adaptation of temperate, pasture-based dairy farms to climate change," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 53-68.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nasca, J.A. & Feldkamp, C.R. & Arroquy, J.I. & Colombatto, D., 2015. "Efficiency and stability in subtropical beef cattle grazing systems in the northwest of Argentina," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 85-96.
    2. Graeme J. Doole & Alvaro J. Romera & Alfredo A. Adler, 2012. "A Mathematical Optimisation Model of a New Zealand Dairy Farm: The Integrated Dairy Enterprise (IDEA) Framework," Working Papers in Economics 12/01, University of Waikato.
    3. White, Robin R. & Brady, Michael, 2014. "Can consumers’ willingness to pay incentivize adoption of environmental impact reducing technologies in meat animal production?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 41-49.
    4. White, Robin R. & Brady, Michael & Capper, Judith L. & Johnson, Kristen A., 2014. "Optimizing diet and pasture management to improve sustainability of U.S. beef production," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 1-12.
    5. Thorn, Alexandra M. & Baker, Michael J. & Peters, Christian J., 2021. "Estimating biological capacity for grass-finished ruminant meat production in New England and New York," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    6. Fleming, Anita & Dalley, Dawn & Bryant, Racheal H. & Edwards, Grant & Gregorini, Pablo, 2021. "Fodder beet to support early and late lactation milk production from pasture, is it worth the risk?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    7. Moulin, Thibault & Perasso, Antoine & Gillet, François, 2018. "Modelling vegetation dynamics in managed grasslands: Responses to drivers depend on species richness," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 374(C), pages 22-36.
    8. Ramilan, Thiagarajah & Scrimgeour, Frank G., 2006. "Abatement Cost Heterogeneity and its Impact on Tradable Nitrogen Discharge Permits," 2006 Conference, August 24-25, 2006, Nelson, New Zealand 31972, New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    9. Mulindwa, Henry & Galukande, Esau & Wurzinger, Maria & Ojango, Julie & Okeyo, Ally Mwai & Sölkner, Johann, 2011. "Stochastic simulation model of Ankole pastoral production system: Model development and evaluation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(20), pages 3692-3700.
    10. Duru, M. & Adam, M. & Cruz, P. & Martin, G. & Ansquer, P. & Ducourtieux, C. & Jouany, C. & Theau, J.P. & Viegas, J., 2009. "Modelling above-ground herbage mass for a wide range of grassland community types," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(2), pages 209-225.
    11. Moulin, Thibault & Perasso, Antoine & Calanca, Pierluigi & Gillet, François, 2021. "DynaGraM: A process-based model to simulate multi-species plant community dynamics in managed grasslands," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 439(C).
    12. Grigera, Gonzalo & Oesterheld, Martin & Pacin, Fernando, 2007. "Monitoring forage production for farmers' decision making," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 637-648, June.
    13. Vogeler, I. & Beukes, P. & Burggraaf, V., 2013. "Evaluation of mitigation strategies for nitrate leaching on pasture-based dairy systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 21-28.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:104:y:2011:i:7:p:541-550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.