In a Changing World-An Economical Comparison Between Traditional and Wet-And-Drought-Resistant Grasses in Swedish Cattle Production Under Different Weather Scenarios

Abstract

This study compared the profitability when feeding silages of different grass species in enterprises with either dairy cows, beef breed bulls, or beef suckler cows. Traditional (TR) grasses timothy and meadow fescue was compared to the alternative wet-and-drought-resistant (WD) grasses tall fescue, festulolium, and reed canary grass in three different weather scenarios with either normal conditions (Ref), delayed late harvest time due to wet weather conditions (Wet), or decreased grass yield due to dry weather conditions (Dry). Contribution margin calculation was conducted for three geographical regions in Sweden. In the Ref and Wet scenarios, TR was more competitive than WD for dairy cows and beef bulls in all regions. Also in the Dry scenario, TR was more competitive than WD for dairy cows, as the lower production cost of the WD was outweighed by a lower milk yield of cows fed WD compared to cows fed TR. Contrary, for beef bulls, WD gave a higher contribution margin than TR did in the Dry scenario, where the break-even for WD being superior over TR occurred when more than every second year was dry. WD reed canary grass was always more competitive than TR and WD festulolium for beef cows.

Keywords

profitability; climate change; dairy cow; bull; beef cow

Published in

Animals
2025, volume: 15, number: 3, article number: 295
Publisher: MDPI

SLU Authors

• Holmström, Kristina

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Hushållningssällskapet Sjuhärad

• Kumm, Karl-Ivar

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Andersson, Hans

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Jardstedt, Mikaela

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Oliveira de Sousa, Dannylo

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hessle, Anna

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Economics and Management and Rural development
Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15030295

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/140879