Synergies and trade-offs in the promotion of the economic and environmental performance of Swiss dairy farms in the mountain area

Promoting both the environmental and economic performance of Swiss agriculture is one of the core objectives of Swiss agricultural policy. In the present paper we identify the synergies and trade-offs in the promotion of these two dimensions of corporate sustainable performance for Swiss dairy farming in the mountain area. Performance is thereby defined as the efficiency of a farm in using its economic and environmental resources to produce agricultural goods or services. The results of our investigation show the existence of several synergies and rather few trade-offs. By increasing farm size, promoting full-time farming and decreasing the intensity of the use of concentrates, major enhancements in terms of both economic and environmental performance can be achieved. Only two variables are shown to present a trade-off in terms of promotion of farm economic and environmental performance: the production of silage-free milk intended for the manufacture of raw milk cheese and the stocking rate. The production of silage-free milk has a positive effect on farm economic performance but a negative one on farm environmental performance. Conversely, the stocking rate negatively impacts on the economic performance but seems to have a positive effect on the environmental one.