Authors: E. Wauters, E. Mathijs
The objective of this deliverable is to analyze the economic and social implications of automatic milking (AM) at the farm level. For this, a farm level survey was designed. A questionnaire has been designed to capture the characteristics and motivations of AM farmers, farm characteristics (such as farm size, grazing system, etc.) and the implications of the introduction of an AM-system. Addresses of AM farmers were assembled with the assistance of the AM manufacturers. A random sample was then drawn from the frame to yield a sample of 13 AM users in Belgium, 57 in the Netherlands, 13 in Denmark and 24 in Germany, totalling to 107 respondents. Farmers were interviewed face-to-face in November 2001 - November 2002. From a subset of 43 of these farmers, we also acquired the accounts or part of the accounts through their bookkeeping agencies. AM farmers report an average reduction of labour use of 20-21%. When hired labour is employed, it is laid off. When there is no hired labour, AM farmers use the free time primarily for non-productive purposes, that is, to spend more time on leisure and with the family. As a result, most AM users report that the quality of life of their family has increased. We have not found widespread evidence of any negative implications, such as increased stress. To assess the financial implications of AM, we simulated a set of typical farms. These typical farms are not average farms, but represent a significant number of dairy farms in a region in terms of size, forage and crops grown, livestock systems, labour organisation and production technology used. We consider a 68- cow farm in Germany and an 80-cow farm in Belgium that may invest in a 1-box system, and a 90-cow farm in the Netherlands and a 150 cow-farm in Denmark that may invest in a 2-box system. For the typical farms in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands investing in an AMsystem is profitable if income per hour of family labour is used as an index of profitability. Income from the dairy enterprise only increases for the Danish farm, while profit from the dairy enterprise increases for the Belgian and the Danish farm. The results are particularly sensitive to assumptions on investment costs and labour reduction.
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Wageningen UR. Last update:
20-02-2008 10:03. |
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