Aufsatz
The Whole and the Parts—A New Perspective on Production Diseases and Economic Sustainability in Dairy Farming
Abstract
The levels of production diseases (PD) and the cow replacement rate are high in dairy farming. They indicate excessive production demands on the cow and a poor state of animal welfare. This is the subject of increasing public debate. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of production diseases on the economic sustainability of dairy farms. The contributions of individual culled cows to the farm’s economic performance were calculated, based on milk recording and accounting data from 32 farms in Germany. Cows were identified as ‘profit cows’ when they reached their individual ‘break-even point’. Data from milk recordings (yield and indicators for PD) were used to cluster farms by means of a principal component and a cluster analysis. The analysis revealed five clusters of farms. The average proportion of profit cows was 57.5%, 55.6%, 44.1%, 29.4% and 19.5%. Clusters characterized by a high proportion of cows with metabolic problems and high culling and mortality rates had lower proportions of profit cows, somewhat irrespective of the average milk-yield per cow. Changing the perception of PD from considering it as collateral damage to a threat to the farms’ economic viability might foster change processes to reduce production diseases.
Additional Information
Gefördert durch den Publikationsfonds der Universität KasselCitation
@article{doi:10.17170/kobra-202112145247,
author={Hoischen-Taubner, Susanne and Habel, Jonas and Uhlig, Verena and Schwabenbauer, Eva-Marie and Rumphorst, Theresa and Ebert, Lara and Möller, Detlev and Sundrum, Albert},
title={The Whole and the Parts—A New Perspective on Production Diseases and Economic Sustainability in Dairy Farming},
journal={Sustainability},
year={2021}
}
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3010 Rumphorst, Theresa
3010 Ebert, Lara
3010 Möller, Detlev
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5550 {{Nachhaltigkeit}}
5550 {{Wissenschaftstransfer}}
5550 {{Milchwirtschaft}}
5550 {{Produktion}}
5550 {{Krankheit}}
7136 ##0##http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/13438
<resource xsi:schemaLocation="http://datacite.org/schema/kernel-2.2 http://schema.datacite.org/meta/kernel-2.2/metadata.xsd"> 2021-12-14T06:58:46Z 2021-12-14T06:58:46Z 2021-08-12 doi:10.17170/kobra-202112145247 http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/13438 Gefördert durch den Publikationsfonds der Universität Kassel eng Namensnennung 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ profit cows economic sustainability knowledge transfer production disease production disease economics 630 The Whole and the Parts—A New Perspective on Production Diseases and Economic Sustainability in Dairy Farming Aufsatz The levels of production diseases (PD) and the cow replacement rate are high in dairy farming. They indicate excessive production demands on the cow and a poor state of animal welfare. This is the subject of increasing public debate. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of production diseases on the economic sustainability of dairy farms. The contributions of individual culled cows to the farm’s economic performance were calculated, based on milk recording and accounting data from 32 farms in Germany. Cows were identified as ‘profit cows’ when they reached their individual ‘break-even point’. Data from milk recordings (yield and indicators for PD) were used to cluster farms by means of a principal component and a cluster analysis. The analysis revealed five clusters of farms. The average proportion of profit cows was 57.5%, 55.6%, 44.1%, 29.4% and 19.5%. Clusters characterized by a high proportion of cows with metabolic problems and high culling and mortality rates had lower proportions of profit cows, somewhat irrespective of the average milk-yield per cow. Changing the perception of PD from considering it as collateral damage to a threat to the farms’ economic viability might foster change processes to reduce production diseases. open access Hoischen-Taubner, Susanne Habel, Jonas Uhlig, Verena Schwabenbauer, Eva-Marie Rumphorst, Theresa Ebert, Lara Möller, Detlev Sundrum, Albert doi:10.3390/su13169044 Nachhaltigkeit Wissenschaftstransfer Milchwirtschaft Produktion Krankheit publishedVersion eissn:2071-1050 Issue 16 Sustainability Volume 13 false 9044 </resource>
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