Didier Bébin

Productive, environmental and economic performances assessments of organic and conventional suckler cattle farming systems

Conversion to OF was simulated for four specialized suckler-beef systems by coupling an economic optimization model (“Opt’INRA”) with a model assessing non-renewable energy (NRE) consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (“PLANETE”). After adaptation of the production system, and based on average prices over 2004–2008, we analyzed the productive, environmental and economic impacts of the conversion process. The ban on chemical fertilizers led to a drop in farm area productivity. For these specialized farms, meat production decreased by 18% to 37% depending on initial level of intensification. The reduced use of inputs results in a 23% to 45% drop in NRE consumption/ha, 5–20% of which is a drop in NRE per ton of live weight produced. Its methane production makes cattle the biggest driver of GHG emissions. The shift to OF does not significantly affect gross GHG emissions per ton of live weight produced, but taking into account carbon sequestration in grasslands suggests net GHG emissions could be lower for OF systems. The lower productivity per hectare (less animals reared per hectares) allows a 26% to 34% reduction in net GHG emissions per hectare of farm area. Economically, the drop in productivity is not compensated by the gain in the meat selling price (+5% to +10%), gross farm product drops by 9% to 16%, and the lower use of inputs creates a strong −9% to −52% drop in operational costs. Farm income falls more than 20% (−7 to −46%).

Productivity and technical efficiency of suckler beef production systems: trends for the period 1990 to 2012

Over the past 23 years (1990 to 2012), French beef cattle farms have expanded in size and increased labour productivity by over 60%, chiefly, though not exclusively, through capital intensification (labour-capital substitution) and simplifying herd feeding practices (more concentrates used). The technical efficiency of beef sector production systems, as measured by the ratio of the volume value (in constant euros) of farm output excluding aids to volume of intermediate consumption, has fallen by nearly 20% while income per worker has held stable thanks to subsidies and the labour productivity gains made. This aggregate technical efficiency of beef cattle systems is positively correlated to feed self-sufficiency, which is in turn negatively correlated to farm and herd size. While volume of farm output per hectare of agricultural area has not changed, forage feed self-sufficiency decreased by 6 percentage points. The continual increase in farm size and labour productivity has come at a cost of lower production-system efficiency - a loss of technical efficiency that 20 years of genetic, technical, technological and knowledge-driven progress has barely managed to offset.

Converting Suckler Cattle Farming Systems to Organic Farming: A Method to Assess the Productive, Environmental and Economic Impacts

This chapter proposes a method for assessing the farming system adaptations required in converting to organic farming (OF) in three beef production systems employed in the Charolais area. The conversion to OF was simulated by coupling an economic optimisation model (“Opt’INRA”) with a model assessing non-renewable energy (NRE) consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (“PLANETE”). After adaptation of the production system, meat production decreased by 19–37%, depending on the initial level of intensification. The reduced use of inputs results in a 23–45% drop in non-renewable energy consumption per hectare and a 5–16% drop per ton of live weight produced. The shift to OF does significantly not affect gross GHG emissions per ton of live weight produced, but, taking into account carbon sequestration in grasslands, net GHG emissions could be lower for OF systems. Economically, the drop in productivity is not compensated by the gain in the meat selling price (+5% to +10%), gross farm product drops by 9–16%, and the lower use of inputs entails a strong drop in operational costs: −9% to −52%. Farm income falls more than 20% (−7% to −46%).