Environmental Economic Benefits Of Intensive Dairy Farms

The economic benefits of intensive dairy farms are influenced by the size of farming,the structure of stocks,the level of production and other factors.Most dairy farms only consider the economic aspects when calculating the benefits,ignoring the environmental cost.The study analyzed the composition and characteristics of production costs and environmental costs of 23 dairy farms with different size and production levels,and explored the impact of size and production level on economic and environmental benefits of dairy farms,in order to provide a basis for sustainable development of dairy farming.The main result are as follows:(1)The average income,net income,input-output ratio and environmental economic benefit of dairy farms increase with the increase of production level,and the feed cost per cattle and the total cost per cattle increase with the increase of milk production level,there is no correlation in scale.(2)There is almost no correlation between the size of dairy farms,the level of milk production and the annual greenhouse gas emissions per cattle,the annual consumption per cattle water resources,and environmental costs per cattle.However,there are significant differences in environmental costs between different size and production levels.Caused by differences in rumen methane emissions caused by differences in dry matter intake.(3)The greenhouse gas emissions,water consumption,ammonia emissions and environmental costs per ton milk produced by dairy farms decreased significantly with the increase of production level,which also led to a significant increase in environmental economic benefits.This is mainly related to the increase of total milk production in dairy farms.There is no direct correlation with size.The average environmental cost per ton milk produced by dairy farms of different size is 178.74±35.77 yuan,the average greenhouse gas emissions are 907.66±174.95 kgCO2 e,and the water consumption is 11.00±2.42 t.(4)Considering the net income and input-output ratio,400-600 heads and more than800 heads of dairy farms have advantages.The net income per cattle was 2712.30±3599.68yuan/a and 2681.76±902.55 yuan/a,and the input-output ratio was 116.60±22.42% and118.50±6.01%,respectively.Taking into account the environmental impact,the average greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption per cattle in the 400 dairy farms are the smallest,respectively,which are 3148.66 ± 275.54 kgCO2 e and 43.03 ± 2.64 t.Thegreenhouse gas emissions and water consumption per ton milk produced by 400-600 dairy farms were the smallest,which were 831.47±142.89 kgCO2 e and 9.80±1.68 t,respectively.Considering the environmental economic benefits of dairy farms of different size,the environmental economic benefits per cattle of dairy cows with 400-600 heads are good,which is 1956.37±3594.87 yuan.The environmental economic benefit of producing 1t raw milk from dairy farms with a size of more than 800 is good,which is 453.74±179.30 yuan.(5)The dry matter intake per cattle was significantly and strongly correlated with the average production cost and environmental cost of cattle,and it was significantly correlated with the annual milk yield of cows,the net economic benefits of cattle and environmental economic benefits.In addition to the level of food nutrition,other factors such as management also have an important impact on the net income of dairy farms and environmental economic benefits.In conclusion,when considering environmental costs,the environmental economic benefits of some low-profit dairy farms are negative,and some excess profits are obtained at the expense of the environment.Therefore,to ensure the sustainable development of the dairy farming industry,the internalization of environmental costs is very necessary.Dairy farms should not blindly expand their size,but should pay attention to the improvement of production levels.