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An economic comparison of systems of dairy production based on N‐fertilized grass and grass‐white clover grassland in a moist maritime environment
Author(s) -
Humphreys J.,
Mihailescu E.,
Casey I. A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
grass and forage science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1365-2494
pISSN - 0142-5242
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2494.2012.00871.x
Subject(s) - fertilizer , grassland , pasture , milk production , livestock , agronomy , stocking , production (economics) , zoology , mathematics , environmental science , biology , economics , ecology , macroeconomics
This study compared the profitabilities of systems of dairy production based on N‐fertilized grass (FN) and grass‐white clover (WC) grassland and assessed sensitivity to changing fertilizer N and milk prices. Data were sourced from three system‐scale studies conducted in Ireland between 2001 and 2009. Ten FN stocked between 2·0 and 2·5 livestock units (LU) ha −1 with fertilizer N input between 173 and 353 kg ha −1 were compared with eight WC stocked between 1·75 and 2·2 LU ha −1 with fertilizer N input between 79 and 105 kg ha −1 . Sensitivity was confined to nine combinations of high, intermediate and low fertilizer N and milk prices. Stocking density, milk and total sales from WC were approximately 0·90 of FN. In scenarios with high fertilizer N price combined with intermediate or low milk prices, WC was more ( P < 0·05) profitable than FN. Based on milk and fertilizer N prices at the time, FN was clearly more profitable than WC between 1990 and 2005. However, with the steady increase in fertilizer N prices relative to milk price, the difference between FN and WC was less clear cut between 2006 and 2010. Projecting into the future and assuming similar trends in fertilizer N and milk prices to the last decade, this analysis indicates that WC will become an increasingly more profitable alternative to FN for pasture‐based dairy production.