Re: Organic-Sustainable

E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor (ACLARK@crop.uoguelph.ca)
Wed, 7 Feb 1996 09:08:00 EDT

Interesting points, in theory, but there are exceptions -
specifically involving "sod" crops - which raise doubt about the
robustness of the theory. Specifically, I refer to net returns (not
gross) from pasture dairy or beef vs. confinement dairy or beef - in
North America. Our rudimentary analyses from a 3-year research trial
here at Guelph showed returns from stocker beef on Class I land were
at least equal to - even with conservative assumptions - or exceeded
returns from any other land use (corn, soybean, wheat etc.) on that
same class of land.

More recent work by a colleague in Ag Ec and Business (Stonehouse)
compared economic returns from organic dairy vs. conventional
(resource-intensive) dairy in Ontario. Although both were
confinement-based, organic dairy used pasture and hay more
integrally, achieved winter cover in most years, purchased remarkably
little from off the farm, grew essentially all of their own feed,
kept their own replacements, grew cereals instead of corn......etc.
AND made more money - per ha, per cow, and per unit of labor.

Therefore, while I make no comment on other crop types or land uses,
certainly, our experience with livestock commodities from grass would
argue that ecologically sound agricultural practice is not, in fact,
inconsistent with profitable agriculture. Ann
ACLARK@crop.uoguelph.ca
Dr. E. Ann Clark
Associate Professor
Crop Science
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
Phone: 519-824-4120 Ext. 2508
FAX: 519 763-8933