Does mixing livestock farming enterprises improve farm and product sustainability?

Mixed farming systems are gaining interest both as a risk management strategy and to apply agroecological principles. This study set out to assess the sustainability of mixed systems compared to their specialized counterparts. The Orfee bioeconomic farm model was used to simulate three mixed farms:...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of agricultural sustainability 2022-05, Vol.20 (3), p.312-326
Main Authors: Mosnier, Claire, Benoit, Marc, Minviel, Jean Joseph, Veysset, Patrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural economics
Agricultural sciences
agroecology
Beef
bioeconomic model
Cash crops
Climate change
Crop-livestock farm
Dairy farms
Economics
economies of scope
Farm buildings
Farming
Farms
Global warming
Income
Life Sciences
Livestock
Livestock farming
Microbalances
Mixed cropping
multi-species livestock farm
Production costs
Profitability
Risk management
Sheep
Sustainability
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Mixed farming systems are gaining interest both as a risk management strategy and to apply agroecological principles. This study set out to assess the sustainability of mixed systems compared to their specialized counterparts. The Orfee bioeconomic farm model was used to simulate three mixed farms: beef and dairy, beef and sheep, and cash crop and beef, under 1990-2017 prices and policies in France. Several sustainability criteria were computed at two scales (i) aggregated farm level, to assess whether mixed farms with several integrated enterprises performed better than if these enterprises were managed in specialized farms, and (ii) unit of product or labour to assess whether a product was produced more sustainably and a worker obtained higher and more stable income in a mixed farm. We found that mixed farms had less work peaks, lower global warming potentials and nitrogen balances, lower total production costs, higher and more stable net incomes than if their enterprises were managed in two specialized farms. However, profitability and income variability of the mixed farms were not better than the best performing specialized farm. The consumption of concentrate feed decreased in the mixed livestock farms but increased in the beef-crop farm that degraded feed-food competition.
ISSN:1473-5903
1747-762X
DOI:10.1080/14735903.2021.1932150