Agroecology 7 min
How to concurrently achieve economic, environmental, and animal welfare performances in French suckler cattle farms
Today's farming systems must remain economically viable, while meeting society's expectations in terms of animal welfare and environmental externalities. This study looks at the extent to which it is possible to simultaneously achieve all these performances at a high level on French suckler cattle farms. This objective is what we call multi-performance.
Published on 14 November 2024
Society has a number of expectations around livestock farming that go beyond mere production and affordable food prices to now encompass high standards of animal welfare and environmental performance.
Here we investigate whether and how it is possible to concurrently achieve good economic, environmental, and animal welfare performances on suckler cattle farms.
We extracted economic indicators, proxies for animal welfare and environmental performances, and data describing farming practices and conditions from a technical-economic database featuring data collected from >250 French suckler farms over the period 2016–2022. We analysed the relationships between animal welfare performance, environmental performance and economic performance using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. We then used logit models to identify farming practices and conditions that promote ‘multiperformance’.
Farms that combine practices where nutritional needs of suckler cattle are synchronised with the grass availability cycle are more likely to multiperform. The synchronisation is managed by exploiting certain key animal characteristics (depletion and restoral of body reserves), choosing the right calving season, and selling animals well adapted to grass-feeding.
Mysko, L.; Minviel, J.J.; Veysset, P.; Veissier, I., 2024. How to concurrently achieve economic, environmental, and animal welfare performances in French suckler cattle farms. Agricultural Systems, 218: 21 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2024.103956