Economical Grassland Systems. An Agricultural Development Alternative for Breeding Dairy Cows in the Vendée

Since the 1950s, the growth in labor productivity in the dairy production systems in the Vendee area of Western France has been based on reductions in grazing, which is often of short duration in forage systems thanks to greater recourse to storage, particularly for forage corn. Since 1990, contrary to this evolution, some farmers have set up dairy cattle grassland production systems largely based on temporary grass-legumes pastures. This paper focuses on the conditions for the development of such systems and on the operations and economic results of the different production systems in the area. A comparison of these results shows that grassland dairy production systems based on agro-ecology are intensive in value added creation and permit higher incomes per hectare and per worker while being less dependent on subsidies.