@article{Anastasiadis:189417,
      recid = {189417},
      author = {Anastasiadis, Simon and Kerr, Suzi},
      title = {Mitigation and Heterogeneity in Management Practices on  New Zealand Dairy Farms},
      address = {2013-10},
      number = {1124-2016-91954},
      series = {Working Papers},
      pages = {44},
      year = {2013},
      abstract = {Pastoral farming can result in adverse environmental  effects such as nitrogen leaching
and greenhouse gas  emissions. However, the cost of mitigation and hence the  socially
appropriate level of tolerance for environmental  effects is still unclear. Research to date within
New  Zealand has either estimated the costs of specific  mitigation technologies or used
simulation modelling at a  farm scale. This is limited for two key reasons: neither  approach uses
data from actual implementation of  technologies and practices on real farms and hence costs  are
speculative; and both largely treat farms as homogenous  when in reality they vary greatly. We use
data on 264 farms  to estimate a distribution of “farm management” residuals  in how efficiently
nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas are  used to generate production. We interpret this
distribution  as a measure of the potential for feasible, relatively  low-cost mitigation to take place
as less efficient farmers  move toward existing best practice.
We can explain only 48%  percent of the OVERSEER-modelled variation in New  Zealand
dairy farms’ nitrogen use efficiency based on  geophysical factors, specific mitigation technologies
and  practices that move emissions across farms such as  wintering off animals. This suggests a
potentially large  role for management factors and farmer skill. In contrast,  OVERSEER-modelled
variation in greenhouse gas use  efficiency is more easily explained by the observable  factors
(73%) but the potential for mitigation through  management changes is still not insignificant.
Using  management practices that are already in commercial use,  this first study using this
approach suggests that  improvements in nitrogen use efficiency may be able to  reduce leaching
by more than 30 percent, while improvements  in greenhouse gas use efficiency may be able to
reduce  emissions by more than 15 percent; the potential varies  considerably across farms.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/189417},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.189417},
}