Long-term economic performance oforganic and conventional field crops inthe mid-Atlantic region

Interest in organic grain production is increasing in the United States but there is limited information regarding theeconomic performance of organic grain and forage production in the mid-Atlantic region. We present the results fromenterprise budget analyses for individual crops and for complete rotations with and without organic price premiums for fivecropping systems at the US Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service (USDA–ARS) Beltsville FarmingSystems Project (FSP) from 2000 to 2005. The FSP is a long-term cropping systems trial established in 1996 to evaluate thesustainability of organic and conventional grain crop production. The five FSP cropping systems include a conventional,three-year no-till corn (Zea mays L.)–rye (Secale cereale L.) cover crop/soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr)–wheat (Triticumaestivum L.)/soybean rotation (no-till (NT)), a conventional, three-year chisel-till corn–rye/soybean–wheat/soybean rotation(chisel tillage (CT)), a two-year organic hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth)/corn–rye/soybean rotation (Org2), a three-yearorganic vetch/corn–rye/soybean–wheat rotation (Org3) and a four- to six-year organic corn–rye/soybean–wheat–red clover(Trifolium pratense L.)/orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata L.) or alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) rotation (Org4 + ). Economicreturns were calculated for rotations present from 2000 to 2005, which included some slight changes in crop rotationsequences due to weather conditions and management changes; additional analyses were conducted for 2000 to 2002 whenall crops described above were present in all organic rotations. Production costs were, in general, greatest for CT, whilethose for the organic systems were lower than or similar to those for NT for all crops. Present value of net returns forindividual crops and for full rotations were greater and risks were lower for NT than for CT. When price premiums fororganic crops were included in the analysis, cumulative present value of net returns for organic systems (US$3933 to5446 ha - 1, 2000 to 2005; US$2653 to 2869 ha - 1, 2000 to 2002) were always substantially greater than for the conventionalsystems (US$1309 to 1909 ha - 1, 2000 to 2005; US$634 to 869 ha - 1, 2000 to 2002). With price premiums, Org2 had greaternet returns but also greater variability of returns and economic risk across all years than all other systems, primarily becauseeconomic success of this short rotation was highly dependent on the success of soybean, the crop with the highest returns.Soybean yield variability was high due to the impact of weather on the success of weed control in the organic systems. Thelonger, more diverse Org4 + rotation had the lowest variability of returns among organic systems and lower economic riskthan Org2. With no organic price premiums, economic returns for corn and soybean in the organic systems were generallylower than those for the conventional systems due to lower grain yields in the organic systems. An exception to this patternis that returns for corn in Org4 + were equal to or greater than those in NT in four of six years due to both lower productioncosts and greater revenue than for Org2 and Org3. With no organic premiums, present value of net returns for the fullrotations was greatest for NT in 4 of 6 years and greatest for Org4 + the other 2 years, when returns for hay crops were high.Returns for individual crops and for full rotations were, in general, among the lowest and economic risk was, in general,among the highest for Org2 and Org3. Results indicate that Org4 + , the longest and most diverse rotation, had the moststable economic returns among organic systems but that short-term returns could be greatest with Org2. This result likelyexplains, at least in part, why some organic farmers in the mid-Atlantic region, especially those recently converting toorganic methods, have adopted this relatively short rotation. The greater stability of the longer rotation, by contrast, may Long-term economic performance of organic and conventional field crops in the mid-Atlantic region explain why farmers who have used organic methods for longer periods of time tend to favor rotations that include perennialforages