COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DAIRY PRODUCTION COSTS AND INCOME IN SOUTHERN GOIÁS STATE 1997/1998

Abstract

This paper shows a comparative analysis of the dairy cattle production cost and income in the Southern Goiás State mesoregion using data from an intentional sample of 34 producers, from October 1997 to September l998. The main variables were the animal unit (UA), the number of milking cows (VL), hectare of pasture (ha), and total income/total cost ratio. The first two indicate the herd relative performance while the third evaluates the pasture performance. The total income/total cost ratio varies from 0.60 to 0.93, indicating that, in the average, producers did not obtain net positive returns on their investments. The same ratio calculated using only cash income and costs show that all cash income/cash cost ratios are larger than the unit (1 .06 to 1.31). This indicates a relative financial success in the short run. The main difficulties to be overcome by the dairy cattle sector are: to lower overhead costs, to improve both land and herd productivity by better herd and pasture management, and to reduce the differences in managerial performance among producers.

KEY-WORDS: Income; cost; dairy profitability.