Sustainability indicators for livestock farming. A review

Lebacq, Thérésa; Baret, Philippe; Stilmant, Didier

doi:10.1007/s13593-012-0121-x

Cited by 252 publications

(232 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The farm scale is the main management level and economic unit, at which decisions, strategic choices and technical actions are performed by the farmer to produce goods and services (Lebacq et al, 2013;Botreau et al, 2014). At this level, such actions could allow the farmer to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the farm.…”

Section: Discussion and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method allows the differences among groups of individuals (here, the EA classes) to be characterised through simultaneously considering several quantitative variables measured on these individuals (here, the sustainability indicators) (Cruz-Castillo et al, 1994). To perform this analysis, we used a set of sustainability indicators (Supplementary Table S1) selected according to the process described by Lebacq et al (2013). In order to identify differences among classes according to sustainability performance, we excluded from this set all indicators linked to farm structure, such as stocking rate, permanent grassland area and economic specialisation.…”

Section: Ea Classes and Comparison Among Classesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Role of input self-sufficiency in the economic and environmental sustainability of specialised dairy farms

Lebacq

Baret

Stilmant

2015

Animal

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Increasing input self-sufficiency is often viewed as a target to improve sustainability of dairy farms. However, few studies have specifically analysed input self-sufficiency, by including several technical inputs and without only focussing on animal feeding, in order to explore its impact on farm sustainability. To address this gap, our work has three objectives as follows: (1) identifying the structural characteristics required by specialised dairy farms located in the grassland area to be self-sufficient; (2) analysing the relationships between input self-sufficiency, environmental and economic sustainability; and (3) studying how the farms react to a decrease in milk price according to their self-sufficiency degree. Based on farm accounting databases, we categorised 335 Walloon specialised conventional dairy farms into four classes according to their level of input self-sufficiency. To this end, we used as proxy the indicator of economic autonomy -that is, the ratio between costs of inputs related to animal production, crop production and energy use and the total gross product. Classes were then compared using multiple comparison tests and canonical discriminant analysis. A total of 30 organic farms -among which 63% had a high level of economic autonomy -were considered separately and compared with the most autonomous class. We showed that a high degree of economic autonomy is associated, in conventional farms, with a high proportion of permanent grassland in the agricultural area. The most autonomous farms used less input -especially animal feeding -for a same output level, and therefore combined good environmental and economic performances. Our results also underlined that, in a situation of decrease in milk price, the least autonomous farms had more latitude to decrease their input-related costs without decreasing milk production. Their incomes per work unit were, therefore, less impacted by falling prices, but remained lower than those of more autonomous farms. In such a situation, organic farms kept stable incomes, because of a slighter decrease in organic milk price. Our results pave the way to study the role of increasing input self-sufficiency in the transition of dairy farming systems towards sustainability. Further research is required to study a wide range of systems and agro-ecological contexts, as well as to consider the evolution of farm sustainability in the long term.

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Section: Discussion and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ea Classes and Comparison Among Classesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of input self-sufficiency in the economic and environmental sustainability of specialised dairy farms

Lebacq

Baret

Stilmant

2015

Animal

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“…creation of landscape and reduction of pollution). Social sustainability, as defined by Lebacq et al (2013), relates to the well-being of farmers and their families, in relation to (i) education; (ii) working conditions, measured by working time, workload (including health) and workforce; and (iii) quality of life, measured by isolation and social involvement. There is a growing recognition of the need to examine overall human well-being and quality of life within the sustainability framework (Elkington, 1999;McKenzie, 2004;Littig and Griessler, 2005;Pilgeram, 2011).…”

Section: Social Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing farm-level sustainability indicators for Ireland using the Teagasc National Farm Survey

Ryan¹,

Hennessy²,

Buckley³

et al. 2016

Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research

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In the context of an expanding, export-dependent agri-food sector, indicators of sustainable development and intensification are necessary to measure, assess and verify the comparative advantage afforded by Ireland's natural pastoral-based food production systems. Such indicators are also necessary to ensure that we produce more food with less adverse impacts on the Irish environment, climate and society. This article outlines the development of farm-level indicators that reflect the multifaceted nature of sustainability, which is encompassed in economic, environmental and social indicators. The role of innovation in farm sustainability was also examined. A comparison of indicators across Irish farm systems showed that dairy farms, followed by tillage farms, tended to be the most economically and socially sustainable farm systems. In relation to greenhouse gas emissions in particular, the top-performing dairy farms, in an economic sense, also tended to be the best-performing farms from an environmental sustainability perspective. This trend was also evident in relation to the adoption of innovative practices on farm, which was found to be strongly correlated with economic performance.

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“…The set of indicators should be able to reflect the current environmental state of the system comprehensively and reliably (Lebacq et al, 2013).…”

Section: The Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…provide insight into the major environmental impacts of the dairy farming systems (Bélanger et al, 2012). Exploring correlations between various indicators can help to identify such a set of indicators (Lebacq et al, 2013). Previous studies have mainly focused on correlations between indicators within LCA and for non-dairy related products (e.g.…”

Section: Knowledge Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benchmarking the environmental performance of dairy farming systems

Mu¹

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Sustainability indicators for livestock farming. A review

Cited by 252 publications

References 45 publications

Role of input self-sufficiency in the economic and environmental sustainability of specialised dairy farms

Role of input self-sufficiency in the economic and environmental sustainability of specialised dairy farms

Developing farm-level sustainability indicators for Ireland using the Teagasc National Farm Survey

Benchmarking the environmental performance of dairy farming systems

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