Organic and conventional dairy farm comparisons in Ontario, Canada

Organic dairy farming systems were compared with conventional (defined here as the prevailing high-technology, high-intensity) dairy fanning systems i n the province of Ontario, Canada from both technical and economic standpoi nts, over a three-year period. Primary data were collected from organic far mers as part of the study, patterned on a data collection protocol for conv entional dairy farmers extant since 1976. Comparability between the samples drawn from the two subpopulations with respect to farm size, climate, natu ral resource endowments, and emphasis on dairying ensured to the extent pos sible that differences in performance reflected differences in farming syst ems and management procedures. The study findings revealed a superior technical performance on conventiona l farms, as measured by milk yield per cow and milk shipments per ha of lan d and per person equivalent. In contrast, economic performance was found to be superior on organic farms, by virtue of the much lower costs of product ion for almost all material inputs, including dairy herd replacements and l ivestock feeds. The lower costs were rooted in an apparent bid by organic d airy farmers to be as self-sufficient as possible in plant nutrients, anima l nutrients and replacement livestock. The majority of land on organic farm s was devoted to feed crop production to support the dairy herd. Convention al dairy farmers tended to import large portions of their inputs across a b road range from crop seeds through synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesti cides to feedstuffs and herd replacements. Much land on conventional farms was allocated to cash crop production. Consequently their costs of producti on and marketing were higher, more than offsetting the higher revenues gene rated.