Status quo and determinants of calf marketing from organic and conventional dairy farms in Baden-Wurttemberg

Objectives of this study were to 1.) characterize the calf marketing situation from dairy production in Baden-Wurttemberg (BW), Germany, 2.) to identify determinants of calf weight and sale price with emphasis on differences between breeds and farm type (organic vs. conventional). A dataset with 3753 farms (56% of all dairy farms in BW) and 287.289 calf sales at livestock markets in the period from 2014 until 2018 was analysed. Two regression models with the effects breed, sex, age, production system (organic/conventional), year and season were used to determine their effect on dependent variables calf weight and sale price. The shares of organic farms and sold organic calves were 9.6% and 8%, respectively. The most traded breed was Fleckvieh (FL) with similar shares for organic (47.3%) and conventional farms (47.9%). Compared to conventional farms, organic farms sold relatively less Holstein (SBT) (19.0% vs. 31.9%) and more Brown Swiss (BS) calves (10.1% vs. 5.4%). Breed and production system significantly influenced calve weight, sale price and age at sale. The mean age of the marketed calves ranged from 18 days for SBT to 38 days for FL. With the exception of SBT, the average sale age of organic calves was lower. Almost all FL calves remained in Germany, of which 42% stayed in BW. 45% of SBT calves were sold almost exclusively to Spain whereas only 18% found a buyer in BW. Calf weight and sale price were significantly higher for FL and meat-milk-crossbreds (XFM) than for the two Holstein breeds (SBT and RBT) and BV. Significantly price discounts were identified for Holstein breeds, for organic calves (-3.5 (sic)) and for exported calves (-28 (sic)). All calves from organic farms were sold to conventional production systems. Results revealed that the low economic value of organic calves requires improvement measures.