IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/srlewp/61122.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade-offs between conflicting animal welfare concerns and cow replacement strategy in out-wintering Scottish suckler herds

Author

Listed:
  • Vosough Ahmadi, Bouda
  • Morgan, Colin A.
  • Stott, Alistair W.

Abstract

Since decoupling of the CAP, many Scottish suckler cow farms are facing financial difficulties. In response, many farmers are out-wintering extensively managed suckler cows to minimise production costs. These systems are of animal welfare concern. A range of trade-offs between animal welfare indicators and between animal welfare and farm profitability can be identified. A Dynamic Programming (DP) model was developed to study these trade-offs. Two herds were modelled assuming their feeding regimes were either low (LHERD) or high (HHERD). The objective of the DP was to maximise the expected net margin from a current cow and its successors over an infinite time horizon. Preliminary results showed that the rate of voluntary culling was higher in HHERD than in LHERD. Animals in HHERD had shorter life expectancy. The expected net present value was 58% lower in LHERD than HHERD (-£41.5 and -£24.3 respectively). These results suggest a heavier culling rate and shorter longevity for animals in HHERD that compromises animal welfare. Also HHERD had a greater implied stocking density than LHERD. This increase of the cows’ population may adversely affect the environment. The presented model provides some of the basic information required to explore some of the trade-offs between farm profit, animal welfare and the environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Vosough Ahmadi, Bouda & Morgan, Colin A. & Stott, Alistair W., 2009. "Trade-offs between conflicting animal welfare concerns and cow replacement strategy in out-wintering Scottish suckler herds," Working Papers 61122, Scotland's Rural College (formerly Scottish Agricultural College), Land Economy & Environment Research Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:srlewp:61122
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.61122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/61122/files/WK34_Ahmadi.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.61122?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azzam, Sara Melin & Kinder, J. E. & Nielsen, M. K., 1990. "Modelling reproductive management systems for beef cattle," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 103-122.
    2. Vosough Ahmadi, Bouda & Baxter, Emma M. & Stott, Alistair W. & Lawrence, Alistair & Edwards, Sandra, 2009. "Animal Welfare And Economic Optimisation Of Farrowing Systems," Working Papers 61124, Scotland's Rural College (formerly Scottish Agricultural College), Land Economy & Environment Research Group.
    3. Stott, Alistair W. & Gunn, George J. & Varo Barbudo, Antonio, 2008. "Management of reproduction in Scottish suckler herds," 82nd Annual Conference, March 31 - April 2, 2008, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, UK 36871, Agricultural Economics Society.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Villalba, D. & Casasus, I. & Sanz, A. & Bernues, A. & Estany, J. & Revilla, R., 2006. "Stochastic simulation of mountain beef cattle systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 414-434, September.
    2. Arne Henningsen & Tomasz Gerard Czekaj & Björn Forkman & Mogens Lund & Aske Schou Nielsen, 2018. "The Relationship between Animal Welfare and Economic Performance at Farm Level: A Quantitative Study of Danish Pig Producers," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 142-162, February.
    3. Lynch, R. & Kelly, A.K. & Kenny, D.A. & Crosson, P., 2020. "Development and evaluation of a dynamic simulation model of reproductive performance in pasture based suckler beef systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    4. Wellner, Katharina & Lohmeier, Reikja & Otter, Verena, 2020. "Die deutsche Sauenhaltung im „Triangle of Needs“: Eine Betrachtung der Wirtschaftlichkeit und Arbeitssicherheit bei freien Abferkelsystemen," 60th Annual Conference, Halle/ Saale, Germany, September 23-25, 2020 305607, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    5. Wellner, Katharina & Lohmeier, Reikja & Otter, Verena, 2020. "Die deutsche Sauenhaltung im „Triangle of Needs“: Eine Betrachtung der Wirtschaftlichkeit und Arbeitssicherheit bei freien Abferkelsystemen," 60th Annual Conference, Halle/ Saale, Germany, September 23-25, 2020 305607, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    6. Villalba, D. & Ripoll, G. & Ruiz, R. & Bernués, A., 2010. "Long-term stochastic simulation of mountain beef cattle herds under diverse management strategies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(4), pages 210-220, May.
    7. Turner, B.L. & Rhoades, R.D. & Tedeschi, L.O. & Hanagriff, R.D. & McCuistion, K.C. & Dunn, B.H., 2013. "Analyzing ranch profitability from varying cow sales and heifer replacement rates for beef cow-calf production using system dynamics," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 6-14.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Livestock Production/Industries;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:srlewp:61122. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lesacuk.html .

    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.