IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v156y2017icp43-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Low-input dairy farming in Europe: Exploring a context-specific notion

Author

Listed:
  • Bijttebier, J.
  • Hamerlinck, J.
  • Moakes, S.
  • Scollan, N.
  • Van Meensel, J.
  • Lauwers, L.

Abstract

Frequently acknowledged as coming forward to environmental issues by reducing external input use, low input (LI) dairy farming is gaining attention. The absence of a clearly delineated description of LI dairying, however, hampers identification and analysis of these farming systems. This paper aims at empirically examining, EU wide, the farm structure, production intensity and productivity of LI with respect to their high input (HI) conventional counterpart and to organic dairying (ORG). A pragmatic quartiles-based categorization of farms from the Farm Accountancy Data Network of 20 important EU dairy countries, with the value of external input costs per grazing livestock unit (GLU) is used as prior discriminating indicator between LI and HI. LI dairy farms are smaller than HI dairy farms, in particular when farm size is expressed as total farm capital. Other variables that differentiate between LI and HI in most countries are number of dairy cows per GLU and area of forage and grassland on total agricultural area. Partial productivities in HI farms exceed those in LI farms, most apparent is milk production per cow. Differentiation of forage production between LI and HI is less uniform throughout Europe. A pairwise matching of differentiation profiles between countries indicates that differentiation between LI and HI is country specific. A similar diversity in country-specific differentiation between ORG and LI farming is found.

Suggested Citation

  • Bijttebier, J. & Hamerlinck, J. & Moakes, S. & Scollan, N. & Van Meensel, J. & Lauwers, L., 2017. "Low-input dairy farming in Europe: Exploring a context-specific notion," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 43-51.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:156:y:2017:i:c:p:43-51
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.05.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X16301937
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.05.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Van Meensel, Jef & Lauwers, Ludwig & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido & Van Passel, Steven, 2010. "Comparing frontier methods for economic-environmental trade-off analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(2), pages 1027-1040, December.
    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. Smith, Laurence G. & Westaway, Sally & Mullender, Samantha & Ghaley, Bhim Bahadur & Xu, Ying & Lehmann, Lisa Mølgaard & Pisanelli, Andrea & Russo, Giuseppe & Borek, Robert & Wawer, Rafał & Borzęcka, M, 2022. "Assessing the multidimensional elements of sustainability in European agroforestry systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Nigel Scollan & Susanne Padel & Niels Halberg & John Hermansen & Pip Nicholas & Marketta Rinne & Raffaele Zanoli & Werner Zollitsch & Ludwig Lauwers, 2017. "Organic and Low†Input Dairy Farming: Avenues to Enhance Sustainability and Competitiveness in the EU," EuroChoices, The Agricultural Economics Society, vol. 16(3), pages 40-45, December.
    3. Toro-Mujica, Paula & Vera, Raúl & Pinedo, Pablo & Bas, Fernando & Enríquez-Hidalgo, Daniel & Vargas-Bello-Pérez, Einar, 2020. "Adaptation strategies based on the historical evolution for dairy production systems in temperate areas: A case study approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    4. Elizabeth Ahikiriza & Jef Meensel & Xavier Gellynck & Ludwig Lauwers, 2021. "Heterogeneity in frontier analysis: does it matter for benchmarking farms?," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 69-84, December.
    5. Véronique De Herde & Kevin Maréchal & Philippe V. Baret, 2019. "Lock-ins and Agency: Towards an Embedded Approach of Individual Pathways in the Walloon Dairy Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-19, August.
    6. Schaak, Henning & Mußhoff, Oliver, 2018. "Understanding the adoption of grazing practices in German dairy farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 230-239.

    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. Atkinson, Scott E. & Tsionas, Mike G., 2021. "Generalized estimation of productivity with multiple bad outputs: The importance of materials balance constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(3), pages 1165-1186.
    2. Huysveld, Sophie & Van Meensel, Jef & Van linden, Veerle & De Meester, Steven & Peiren, Nico & Muylle, Hilde & Dewulf, Jo & Lauwers, Ludwig, 2017. "Communicative farm-specific diagnosis of potential simultaneous savings in costs and natural resource demand of feed on dairy farms," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 34-45.
    3. Junran Dong & Desheng Wu, 2020. "An Evaluation of the Impact of Ecological Compensation on the Cross-Section Efficiency Using SFA and DEA: A Case Study of Xin’an River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Nguyen, Trung Thanh, 2013. "Analysis of environmental efficiency variations: A nutrient balance approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 37-46.
    5. Yiridoe, Emmanuel K. & Amon-Armah, Frederick & Hebb, Dale & Jamieson, Rob, 2013. "Eco-efficiency of Alternative Cropping Systems Managed in an Agricultural Watershed," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150357, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Joanna Domagała, 2021. "Economic and Environmental Aspects of Agriculture in the EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-23, November.
    7. Emmanuel K. Yiridoe & Frederick Amon-Armah & Dale Hebb & Rob Jamieson, 2017. "Eco-efficient choice of cropping system for reducing nitrate-N leaching in an agricultural watershed," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 201-221, July.
    8. Heidari, Mohammad Davoud & Turner, Ian & Ardestani-Jaafari, Amir & Pelletier, Nathan, 2021. "Operations research for environmental assessment of crop-livestock production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    9. Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2013. "Accounting for unobserved management in renewable energy & growth," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 345-355.
    10. Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Gómez-Limón, José A., 2012. "Assessing eco-efficiency with directional distance functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(3), pages 798-809.
    11. Aleksander Banasik & Jacqueline M. Bloemhof-Ruwaard & Argyris Kanellopoulos & G. D. H. Claassen & Jack G. A. J. Vorst, 2018. "Multi-criteria decision making approaches for green supply chains: a review," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 366-396, September.
    12. Kuosmanen, Natalia & Kuosmanen, Timo, 2013. "Modeling Cumulative Effects of Nutrient Surpluses in Agriculture: A Dynamic Approach to Material Balance Accounting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 159-167.
    13. Leen, Frederik & Van den Broeke, Alice & Aluwé, Marijke & Lauwers, Ludwig & Millet, Sam & Van Meensel, Jef, 2018. "Stakeholder-driven modelling the impact of animal profile and market conditions on optimal delivery weight in growing-finishing pig production," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 34-45.
    14. Aldanondo-Ochoa, Ana M. & Casasnovas-Oliva, Valero L. & Almansa-Sáez, M. Carmen, 2017. "Cross-constrained Measuring the Cost-environment Efficiency in Material Balance Based Frontier Models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 46-55.
    15. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    16. Victor MOUTINHO & Margarita ROBAINA & Pedro MACEDO, 2018. "Economic-environmental efficiency of European agriculture - a generalized maximum entropy approach," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 64(10), pages 423-435.
    17. Aldanondo, Ana M. & Casasnovas, Valero L. & Almansa, M. Carmen, 2016. "Cost-constrained measures of environmental efficiency: a material balance approach," MPRA Paper 72490, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Rødseth, Kenneth Løvold, 2016. "Environmental efficiency measurement and the materials balance condition reconsidered," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(1), pages 342-346.

    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:156:y:2017:i:c:p:43-51. 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.