Assessment of the sustainability between 2010 and 2015 of small-scale dairy systems in the highlands of central Mexico

The objective was to assess the sustainability through time of small-scale dairy systems with a conventional management of cut-and-carry of irrigated pastures, plus cereal straws and commercial concentrates, in the highlands of central Mexico. Sustainability was assessed in two productive cycles five years apart, 2010 and 2015, following the IDEA Method (Indicateurs de Durabilite des Explotations Agricoles - Sustainability Indicators in Agricultural Farms) under a rural participatory research approach. Semis-tructured interviews were applied monthly over the two years of assessment. Economic analyses were deflated to December 2015 for both cycles. In both assessment cycles, the economic scale was the factor limiting sustainability given the lower scores compared to the agroecological and socioterritorial scales. There were differences (P < 0.05) for management of nutrients and space in the agroecological scale, which were 21 % higher in 2015. Furthermore, there were differences (P < 0.05) in the economic scale for the components of economic viability and independence that were 53 and 60 % lower in 2015 than 2010, noting that there were no differences in yields per cow and in feeding strategies in both assessment cycles; which showed that farms that remained static and did not innovate in their production practices tend to reduce their profitability, and therefore their sustainability.