Economic assessment of small-scale mountain dairy farms in South Tyrol depending on feed intake and breed

Figures & data

Table 1. Criteria for the selection of the dairy farms for the four different groups.

	Low-input Tyrolean Grey (L-TG)	Low-input Brown Swiss (L-BS)	High-input Tyrolean Grey (H-TG)	High-input Brown Swiss (H-BS)
No. of farms	13	12	14	19
Breed	Tyrolean Grey	Brown Swiss	Tyrolean Grey	Brown Swiss
Concentrates (kg/day)^1	≤3.5 kg	≤4.5 kg	≥6.0 kg	≥7.5 kg

¹On average per lactating cow.

Table 2. Descriptions of farms by group.

	Farm groups
Item	L-TG	L-BS	H-TG	H-BS
Meter a.s.l.	1145 (345)	1298 (289)	1283 (267)	1148 (255)
Lactating cows, no.	12.1 (2.8)	10.3 (2.7)	12.6 (3.5)	12.6 (3.2)
Young cattle, no.	5.6 (4.1)	4.3 (2.7)	5.2 (3.8)	3.2 (2.9)
Rearing own cattle, %	100	100	85.7	63.2
ECM/cow and year, kg	4191 (349)	4906 (678)	5871 (712)	7739 (1111)
ECM/farm and year, kg	47,402^a (13,730)	49,352^a (17,399)	74,082^b (24,372)	100,588^c (39,673)
Full-time, %	53.8	41.7	71.4	78.9
Loose housing, %	15.4	8.3	7.1	42.1
Grassland, ha	11.0 (4.6)	10.4 (3.7)	11.4 (4.9)	7.8 (1.8)
Days of grazing	102.3 (70.1)	76.7 ± 47.7	52.1 (56.8)	21.6 (30.0)
Concentrate/ cow and day, kg	3.3 (0.9)	3.6 (1.5)	6.4 (0.8)	8.0 (1.2)
Roughage-derived milk, %	44.5 (11.8)	49.4 (13.2)	20.1 (14.1)	25.4 (10.7)

L-TG: low input Tyrolean Grey; L-BS: low input Brown Swiss; H-TG: high input Tyrolean Grey; H-BS: high input Brown Swiss; Meter a.s.l.: meter above sea level; ECM: energy-corrected milk. Means; standard deviation in brackets.

Table 3. Revenues, costs and income by group in €.

	Farm groups
Item	L-TG	L-BS	H-TG	H-BS
Revenues	39,241^a (12,033)	34,672^a (11,317)	55,988^b (15,219)	68,132^b (26,156)
Milk	24,877^a (7368)	26,240^a (9613)	41,609^b (15,193)	56,992^c (26,064)
Sold cows	4033^a (1874)	2305^b (1160)	5162^a (3545)	4910^a (2568)
Subsidies	10,331^a (6237)	6126^b (2141)	9218^ab (3545)	6192^b (3323)
Variable costs	15,964^a (8402)	15,249^a (3545)	22,766^b (7322)	29,308^c (10,808)
Concentrates	4442^a (2748)	3909^a (2193)	10,190^b (3951)	12,972^c (4712)
Forage production^1	7414^a (4164)	7,153^ab (2143)	7281^a (2718)	5395^b (1186)
Silage	15^a (55)	158^a (548)	121^a (309)	1182^b (2229)
Veterinary	491^a (572)	554^a (417)	1156^b (751)	1375^b (941)
Insemination	649^ab (195)	584^a (161)	942^ab (642)	914^b (463)
Stock replacement	1023 (2330)	1237 (1815)	942 (1961)	3808 (3366)
Other	1645 (1938)	1320 (641)	1732 (1218)	2675 (3200)
Gross margin	30,690 (9837)	26,575 (9641)	40,503 (11,260)	44,219 (19,856)
Fixed costs	18,341 (7850)	17,479 (6653)	18,965 (7215)	27,112 (8830)
Machinery and building upkeep	4282 (2543)	3259 (1712)	3409 (1657)	5612 (3962)
Building depreciation	1924^a (2528)	2253^a (2181)	2402^a (2623)	4716^b (4442)
Machine depreciation	4378^a (3569)	5,052^ab (3,517)	5,196^ab (3, 103)	7,764^b (5,902)
Insurance	1744 (1282)	1689 (646)	1887 (970)	2480 (1447)
Fees and consulting	5189 (2899)	5059 (3214)	5760 (3626)	5110 (2641)
Other	337 (543)	25 (87)	200 (406)	551 (550)
Summed costs	34,305^a (14,623)	32,729^a (8156)	41,731^a (12,532)	56,420^b (17,639)
Income
Excl. subsidies	−344 (8571)	−453 (6914)	5638 (8523)	5993 (16,714)
Incl. subsidies	5987 (8063)	2673 (8046)	14,856 (7117)	11,388 (17,130)
Workload (h)
Per year	1959^a (432)	1852^a (419)	2042^a (716)	1963^a (670)
Per day	5.37^a (1.19)	5.08^a (1.15)	5.60^a (1.96)	5.38^a (1.84)
Payment/working hour
Excl. subsidies	−.67^a (4.87)	−.32^a (4.21)	2.35^b (3.91)	3.25^a (8.78)
Incl. subsidies	3.01^a (3.70)	1.09^a (4.60)	7.39^b (2.75)	6.74^b (8.42)

L-TG: low input Tyrolean Grey; L-BS: low input Brown Swiss; H-TG: high input Tyrolean Grey; H-BS: high input Brown Swiss.

^a–cMeans within a row with different superscripts differ (p < .05); Standard deviation in brackets.

¹ Estimated according to Peratoner et al. (2010), includes labour costs only.

Table 4. Revenues, costs and income per kg ECM in €-Cent.

	Farm groups
Item	L-TG	L-BS	H-TG	H-BS
Revenues	83.7^a (15.6)	73.4^a (8.8)	76.4^a (11.4)	68.1^a (5.9)
Milk	54.6^a (3.7)	55.2^a (4.2)	56.6^a (3.0)	55.1^a (3.9)
Sold cows	8.9^a (4.1)	4.8^b (2.6)	7.7^ab (6.1)	4.9^b (2.7)
Subsidies	22.6^a (12.8)	13.4^b (5.0)	13.7^b (7.2)	6.9^c (4.5)
Variable costs	32.5^a (9.9)	32.7^a (7.7)	31.5^ab (8.1)	29.5^b (7.1)
Fixed costs	37.7^a (12.9)	37.9^a (13.3)	26.6^b (8.3)	29.1^b (9.7)
Summed costs	70.2^a (18.1)	70.6^a (18.7)	58.1^b (12.7)	58.6^b (11.2)
Income
Excl. subsidies	−.9^a (18.2)	−0.6^a (18.2)	4.5^b (10.1)	2.5^b (12.9)
Incl. subsidies	13.6^ab (19.6)	2.8^a (18.1)	18.3^b (7.0)	9.5^b (13.1)

ECM: energy-corrected milk; L-TG: low input Tyrolean Grey; L-BS: low input Brown Swiss; H-TG: high input Tyrolean Grey; H-BS: high input Brown Swiss.

^a–cMeans within a row with different superscripts differ (p < .05); Standard deviation in brackets.

Table 5. Revenues, costs and income per ha grassland in €.

	Farm groups
Item	L-TG	L-BS	H-TG	H-BS
Revenues	3013^ab (1223)	3074^a (1450)	4461^b (1187)	8073^c (2624)
Milk	2449^a (799)	2734^ab (1368)	3947^b (1151)	7369^c (2463)
Sold cows
Subsidies	947^a (456)	619^a (193)	881^a (357)	840 ^a (514)
Variable costs	1582^a (987)	1555^a (432)	2103^a (497)	3830^b (1212)
Fixed costs	1851^a (950)	1926^a (1153)	1852^a (756)	3581^b (1276)
Summed costs	3430^a (1825)	3481^a (1509)	3953^a (1124)	7403^b (2145)
Income
Excl. subsidies	−17^a (879)	−7^a (823)	508^ab (699)	670^b (1921)
Incl. subsidies	530^ab (749)	212^a (872)	1389^bc (583)	1510^c (1873)

L-TG: low input Tyrolean Grey; L-BS: low input Brown Swiss; H-TG: high input Tyrolean Grey; H-BS: high input Brown Swiss.

^a–cMeans within a row with different superscripts differ (p < .05); standard deviation in brackets.

Table 6. Comparison of the 20% of farms that achieve the lowest or highest income per kg ECM, per farm and year and per ha grassland in terms of economic indicators, group affiliation, feeding and husbandry.

	Per kg ECM, c			Per farm, €			Per ha grassland
Item	<20%	>20%	All	<20%	>20%	All	<20%	>20%	All
Economy
Revenues incl. subsidies	75.4	70.7	74.7	43,264	78,017	51,802	5678	8831	5861
Variable costs	37.6	24.9	31.3	24,334	27,241	21,829	3021	3174	2438
Concentrates	10.0	10.0	11.2	8917	15,521	8513	1102	1430	973
Forage production	16.2	7.2	11.1	6664	6350	6667	807	676	689
Veterinary	1.3	1.0	1.3	875	1165	954	115	135	110
Stock replacement	4.0	1.2	2.5	3549	2334	1960	420	346	237
Fixed costs	46.4	19.3	32.2	26,380	24,030	21,186	3285	2815	2433
Building depreciation	6.2	3.4	4.3	4844	5074	3454	7873	5084	3022
Machine depreciation	15.9	4.2	9.1	7154	5138	5824	7873	5849	5824
Insurance	4.6	1.7	3.0	2860	1994	2008	332	232	229
Fees and consulting	8.9	4.3	8.5	5367	4640	5273	693	492	586
Summed costs	83.9	44.2	63.6	50,714	51,271	43,019	6302	5982	4869
Income excl. subsidies	−5.4	18.4	−.3	−1,807	20,486	1636	−465	2185	164
Income incl. subsidies	−.5	26.5	11.1	−495	27,641	9473	−30.3	2848	992
Farm group affiliation, n
L-TG	6	2		3	1		3	0
L-BS	4	0		5	0		5	1
H-TG	0	3		0	3		0	3
H-BS	2	6		4	7		4	8
Further determinants
Herd size, n	11.5	13.6	12.0	10.9	15.2	12.0	11.1	14.3	12.0
ECM/year and cow	4753	7020	5886	5637	7501	5886	5593	7609	5886
Pasture days, n	96.7	22.7	58.1	67.1	31.0	58.1	70.4	28.3	58.1
Percentage of roughage, %	41.1	31.6	33.3	38.6	27.7	33.3	37.4	30.0	33.3
Concentrates per day, kg	4.2	6.7	5.6	4.9	7.5	5.6	5.0	7.3	5.6

ECM: energy-corrected milk; L-TG: low input Tyrolean Grey; L-BS: low input Brown Swiss; H-TG: high input Tyrolean Grey; H-BS: high input Brown Swiss.

Table 7. Farmers’ satisfaction with and attitudes towards their economic situation and future farm decisions.

	Farm groups
Do you agree/think that…	L-TG	L-BS	H-TG	H-BS
relation of payment to workload is good?^1	4.08 (0.99)^ab	4.58 (0.67)^a	3.50 (1.09)^b	3.84 (0.81)^b
you will still produce milk in 10 years?^1	2.62 (0.77)^a	2.58 (0.79)^a	2.00 (0.68)^ab	1.89 (0.99)^b
you will change milk yield per cow?^2	3.15 (1.49)^a	3.00 (0)^a	3.00 (0)^a	2.84 (0.89)^a

L-TG: low input Tyrolean Grey; L-BS: low input Brown Swiss; H-TG: high input Tyrolean Grey; H-BS: high input Brown Swiss.

^a,bMeans within a row with different superscripts differ (p < .05); standard deviation in brackets.

¹ 5-point-Likert scale from 1=“Yes, absolutely” with 3=“Partly” to 5=“No, absolutely not”.

² 5-point-Likert scale from 1=“Much less milk” with 3=“Equal milk yield” to 5=“Much more milk”.

Peratoner G, Kasal A, Plitzner C. 2010. Stima del bilancio foraggero per l’Alto Adige [Estimate of the Fodder Balance for South Tyrol]. Quaderno Sozooalp. 6:111–122.

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