News Dairy farm
Best farmer loses less nitrogen, earns more
By paying closer attention to their nitrogen losses, dairy farmers can better meet all kinds of environmental conditions and also achieve a 34% better result. This is apparent from research by Wageningen business economists and a soil scientist.
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They write about it in the publication IOPScience. university magazine Resource writes about it too. The researchers examined 341 intensive dairy farmers which raw materials entered their farms in the years from 2006 to 2017, how much they produced and how much manure they removed. It brought forth striking insights. The best farmers achieved 34% more gross profit and also scored a 50% lower nitrogen surplus. They did this mainly thanks to better management. The gap between the best farmers and the rest also widened during the period studied.
The researchers do not know exactly which measures are responsible for the difference between the best and the less scoring companies. "In our model, the company is a black box," said researcher Frederic Ang. "We only know what goes in and out of the company."
Precision Farming Possible Cause
There are suspicions. According to the researchers, a lot has to do with efficiency improvements, better utilization of available nutrients, application at the right time and in the right place. More attention to animal health also pays for itself, because less is removed, less young stock is needed for replacement and the like. One of the researchers describes it as a kind of precision farming in dairy farming.