Development of a production cost calculation model for dairy cattle and comparison between the costs of small and large farms

• Grant number: 20/16659-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2021
• End date: December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Augusto Hauber Gameiro
• Grantee: Juliana Vieira Paz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Economic management is essential for maintaining milk producers in the activity, however due to its high degree of complexity it is relatively little adopted. The narrow profit margin, the lack of government support and the absence of financial control make dairy cattle farming an unstable activity, which explains the large number of producers who have left it for the past 20 years. One of the main causes of unsustainability of dairy farms is the poor management of financial resources. Financial management of the property allows the producer to have a vision of his business, to know the bottlenecks of his ownership and, thus, more precise decisions, enabling its maintenance in the activity. Today there are some models of cost of milk production proposed, with different classifications and different levels of details. The present research has as objective to develop a model of calculation of production cost of dairy cattle as well as comparing small and large milk producers in order to observe the main bottlenecks in both types of production, allowing to know the most flexible points for changes, facilitating management strategic cost management, in addition to enabling safer investments. The model will have a simple cost classification for easy understanding, since it is necessary for calculating the cost of milk, it facilitates filling the table and is one of the major difficulties encountered by producers. There will be no repetition of item in two different classifications and item details of each cost, which reduces the chances of forgetting a topic. There search will begin with an assessment to define Brazilian dairy farms representative to participate in the study, with subsequent application of a questionnaire, assembling the cost model and validating it. Subsequently, the cost will be made accessible to producers in order to minimize the challenge of the complexity of economic management and encourage its use by producers, having a positive impact on the milk chain. (AU)