Dairy Systems and Sustainability

We analyzed how three different dairy management systems –continuous grazing, confinement and management intensive grazingcompare across nine sustainability indicators set by the Dairy Stewardship Alliance. A self-assessment survey comprising animal husbandry, biodiversity, energy, community health, farm financials, nutrient, pest, water and soil management was assessed twice across the same farmers. Preliminary results indicated that pasture-based farms, particularly those implementing management intensive grazing, had significantly fewer cows, less acreage and produced less milk than confinement. However they scored higher sustainability especially on farm financials and soil management indicating higher chances of survival of medium and small pasture based farms. Also, most sustainability indicators improved on the second assessment where management intensive grazing and traditional grazing farms scored above confinement revealing that education and access to information were essential to improve management practices and sustainability.