Chapter 2

2. Typical production patterns on small farms

Obviously in the population of more then 1 mln farms feeding and livestock keeping systems, as well as productivity and profitability of animal production significantly differ among farms due to a number of factors such as natural farming conditions, tradition, financial situation or farmers. In a whole there are, however the most common patterns, which can be distinguished (Table 5 ). According to the estimated farm types structure the differences between farms might be described as follows:

Table 5. Typical production patterns for selected farm types.

Model	Farm type and soil quality (G – good, P – poor)	Share in	Total	Grass-	Livestock number			Forage crops: cows
Model	Farm type and soil quality (G – good, P – poor)	total LU	Area (ha)	land area (ha)	Cows		Sows	Green fodder and hay	Silage maize	Silage grass
I	Dairy (G)	4,55%	3,5	0,9	3		0	+
I	Dairy- (P)		3,5	1,4	3		0	+
II	Dairy (G)	5,45%	8,5	1,2	5		0	+
II	Dairy- (P)		9,2	2,8	4		0	+
III	Dairy (G)	5,53%	11,0	1,2	8		0	+
III	Dairy- (P)		12,5	4,5	7		0	+		+
IV	Dairy (G)	2,35%	18,0	2	10		0	+
IV	Dairy- (P)		21,0	9,2	8		0	+		+
V	Dairy (G)	0,40%	62,0	11	30		0	+	+	+
V	Dairy- (P)		68,0	42	35		0	+		+
VI	Pig (G)	1,19%	37,0	0	0		30
VI	Pig-(P)		42,0	0	0		33
VII	Mixed (G)	2,99%	5,2	0,2	2 - b.c*		3	+
VII	Mixed-(G)		5,7	0,7	2- b.c.		3	+
VIII	Mixed (G)	2,79%	7,2	0,2	4		3	+
VIII	Mixed-(G)		7,7	0,8	3		4	+
IX	Mixed (G)	10,2%	10,2	0,2	3- b.c.		8	+
IX	Mixed-(G)		10,8	2	3- b.c.		7	+
X	Mixed (G)	2,48%	16,2	0,5	8		9	+	+
X	Mixed-(G)		17,7	7	9		8	+		+
XI	Pig (G)	4,65%	14,0	0,3	3-b. c.		14	+
XI	Pig-(P)		14,5	0,5	3-b. c.		15	+
XII	Mixed (G)	4,65%	19,0	4,3	8		14	+	+	+
XII	Mixed-(G)		18,5	7,5	9	13		+		+
	Total share	47,25%

Model

Forage crops: cows

pigs

Concentrates

Type of manure produced

Sugar beets leaves

Fodder beets

Crop residues

Potato

Wastes

Potato

Grains

Cereal bran

Protein concen-

trate

Premix

Soya/ oil-seed meal

Industriet concen-trates

Manure

III

Manure

Slurry

VII

Manure

VIII

Manure

XII

Manure

* beef cattle

A. Dairy (cattle) farms[1]

Smallest farms, below 5 ha (7 ha), on good soils, usually keep 1 – 5 cows.

· Feeding system – traditional. Main fodder crops are grass from extensive pasture and silage made of sugar beet leaves. Cattle is also being fed with other crop residues, grass from hedges, sorted out low quality potatoes. Small amount of farm-produced grains is added to the diet.

· Animal wastes – manure, removed everyday by hands from the old type barns;

Smallest farms, below 5 ha (7 ha), on poor soils.

The main difference relates to the fodder crops used – silage is being replaced with fodder beet, there might be more hay in the diet.

Medium size farms, up to 30 hectares on good soils

· Higher intensity of production and more specialization in milk production possible;

· Dominating type of building for animals is a construction from the 70-ties, with simple equipment for milking. Feed application done by hands.

· Feeding system – most often 2 types of silage are produced (made of sugar beet leaves or grass and maize). Own grains are fed, but for the increase of milk yield protein concentrate and minerals are added.

· Animal wastes – manure, removed everyday mechanically.

Medium size farms (up to 30 hectares) on poor soils

· The main difference is in fodder structure. Usually the share of natural grassland in farms with poorer soils is greater. Grass or Lucerne might also be produced on arable land.

· Number of animals might be greater, due to low profitability of crop production (livestock may generate more cash).

Large farms

· Larger, more modern buildings, allowing fodder application from fodder wagon, milking parlour common in building for greater herds of cows.

· Feeding system – silage made of grass and silage made of maize (even if sugar beets are grown, the leaves would be ploughed in). The concentrates are of higher quality and well balanced.

· Animal wastes – mainly solid manure (dung), removed mechanically. Often under the building there is a tank for catching dung water and storing it for a limited period of time. In some farms slurry might be produced..

Largest farms (e.g. more then 500 hectares), technologically advanced, with large herds of cows

· Intensive, high productivity in milk production;

· Two types of buildings for cows possible:

- traditional constructions, well equipped and mechanized, with manure produced mainly;

- newest constructions, technologically advanced with animals keeping system split into two basic sections – in one of them only cows are kept on straw. Both, manure and slurry produced.

B. Pig farms

Mainly feeding systems, size of herd and intensity of production differentiates pig farms of specific types.

Small farms.

Use own farm-produced grains with an addition of proteins characterize production. Feed conversion ratio exceeds 3,5 kg per 1 kg of weight gain. Period of keeping piglets with sow is long (8 weeks). Production is hand labour based.

Medium size farms.

Feeding intensity is higher, with feed conversion ratio ranging from 3,1 to 3,5 kg. Industrial, high quality concentrates are used, piglets stay with sow for 6-7 weeks.

Large farms.

Production is very intensive, feed conversion ratio is less then 3,1 kg., piglets kept with sow for 4-5 weeks. Feeding is based on norms, specialized feed of high quality is used for specific age groups.

C. Mixed farms

One of the most characteristic features of mixed farms is keeping animals in multi-functional buildings (for different kinds of livestock), especially in smaller farms. Feeding systems for respective livestock groups are similar as in specialized cattle or pig farms of the size cluster. Almost exclusively the type of animal wastes produced is manure (dung).

Focusing on animal wastes management the following concluding remarks might be made:

· The main type of animal wastes produce on Polish livestock farms is manure.

· The most common type of buildings for livestock requires removing manure on a daily basis. There are some traditional constructions where animals are kept on a “deep straw”. It is not possible to estimate the number, certainly it is small;

· Slurry is spread on maximum 10% of total area fertilised with animal wastes. Production of slurry is concentrated regionally, mainly on larger pig farms or farms with large areas of grassland.

· It can be expected that the existing proportion of manure and slurry produced will remain unchanged in the future. There is even a tendency for switching from slurry to manure on some large farms. However, in the newest constructions for large herds of cows mixed “manure – slurry” systems become introduced.

There is no reliable statistical data on the percentage of livestock farms equipped with proper animal wastes storage facilities, especially while taking into account the capacity and quality. Making a very rough estimation, based on experts’ knowledge 5 basic situations can be distinguished:

Farms with no facilities at all – mainly small scale pig and mixed farms;
Farms equipped with storage facilities but of poor quality, not guaranteeing any protection against leaking – mainly larger, specialized farms;
Farms equipped with tanks for catching dung water, but without dung plates for storing manure – mainly medium size dairy or mixed farms.
Farms with dung plates for storing manure, but without tanks for catching dung water (or the capacity too small);
Farms equipped with proper storage facilities. It applies to 2 basic groups of farms: large farms with new buildings established after the year 1993 under the new law, and dairy specialized farms, due to preferential credits available for enlarging the scale of milk production (mainly in North-East and Central-North parts of Poland.

[1] It should be emphasized, that in Poland milk cows are kept in 99% of farms with cattle. Usually a number of age groups are represented in a herd. The number of highly specialized beef farms is very low. That is why in the report for farms with cattle the expression “dairy farms” is used.

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