Canada dairy farming

Similar findings on dairy farms in Canada were reported by Stonehouse, et al. (2001). The superior economic performance on organic dairy farms was attributed to lower costs of production for almost all material inputs, including dairy herd replacements and livestock feeds. The organic dairy farmers used more land for feed crop production for the dairy cows in order to be as self-sufficient as possible. The conventional dairy farmers imported crop seeds, synthetic chemical fertilisers and pesticides, feedstuffs and herd replacements, with more of their land being devoted to cash crops. 

Stonehouse, P., Clark, E.A. Ogini, Y.A. (2001) Organic and conventional dairy farm comparisons in Ontario, Canada. Biological Agriculture and Horticulture, 19, 115-125. 

Labour cost is often controversial as it differs greatly between industries. For example, it is more likely to be similar or higher in intensive industries (e.g. horticulture, where labour can contribute considerably to replace herbicides) than in extensive industries (e.g. large-scale cereal growing). However, there can also be variations within industries. For example, labour costs were found to be similar or lower in studies on dairy farms in Australia (Wynen 2000) and Canada (Stonehouse et al. 2001), but higher in the USA (Butler 2002). 

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