Innovative Technology and Sustainable Development of Organic - 1.

a. What are the economic, ecological and societal issues when introducing AMS on organic dairy
farms in the Netherlands and Denmark?
b. Do economic, ecological, and social indicator scores differ between organic dairy
farms using AMS and farms using a conventional milking system (CMS) in Denmark?
c. What is the effect of time-limited grazing on eutrophication, animal behaviour and milk
quality?
d. What are the economic and environmental consequences of three vision-based scenarios for
organic dairy farming in 2020?
1.4 Outline of the thesis
The outline of the thesis is schematically represented in Fig 3. After the general introduction, each
above described research question will be explored in a different chapter.
General introduction and background Chapter 1
Identify
sustainability
issues for
automatic
milking in DK
and NL.
Chapter 2
Stakeholder involvement
Quantify
identified
sustainability
indicators on
farms with and
without AMS.
Chapter 3
Investigate
technical
aspects of
grazing.
Eutrophication,
animal
behaviour, and
milk quality.
Chapter 4
Scenario
analysis; three
alternative
futures for
organic dairy in
DK.
Chapter 5
Fig 3. Schematic representation of the outline of the thesis (DK is Denmark; NL is the
Netherlands, AMS is automatic milking systems).
In the next paragraphs there follows a short outline of the general goal and scope of chapter 2 to 5,
which focus on research questions a to d, respectively.
Identify sustainability issues for automatic milking in Denmark and the Netherlands
In chapter two, the general problem situation of AMS use in Denmark and the Netherlands is described
(step 1 of framework). Furthermore, economic, ecological and social issues related to introducing AMS
on organic dairy farms in Denmark and the Netherlands were investigated (step 2). Identification of
14 Sustainable Technology in Organic Dairy Farming
General discussion Chapter 6