Gross and Net Profit of Dairy Cattle Farms - a Case Study in Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey

Abstract

The major aim of this study was to compare the gross and net profit of culture, cross and native-breed dairy cattle farms in Gevas district of Van Province, Turkey. The required data belonged to 2009 production period and was collected from 44 farms by means of questionnaires interviewing the managers directly. Stratified random sampling method was used in determining the sample size. The number of cows per farm, daily milk yield per cow and lactation period were 3.15 head, 11.54 kg and 210 days for culture-breed farms; 4.0 head, 6.43 kg, and 210 days for cross-breed farms and 3.06 head, 4.21 kg and 215 days for native-breed farms, respectively. Daily feed intake per cow was 13.47 (9.88 kg roughage and 3.59 kg concentrated feeds) for culture-breed farms, 11.00 kg (9.66 kg roughage and 1.134 concentrated feeds) for cross-breed farms and 11.19 kg (9.29 kg roughage and 1.9 concentrated feeds), for native-breed farms, respectively. Feed costs consisted of 90.34, 89.11 and 84.59 % of total variable costs for culture, cross and native-breed farms, respectively. The cost of one kg milk was $0.49, $0.76 and $1.11 for culture, cross and native-breed farms, respectively. Gross profit per farm and per cow were $2,665 and $846 for culture-breed farms, $1,220 and $305 for cross-breed farms; $55 and $17.8 for native-breed farms, respectively. Economical profitability rate of culture-breed farms in terms of gross profit were nearly two times higher with 19.27% compared to that of 10.01 % for cross-breed farms. The economical profitability rate for native-breed farms was only at 0.53% levels. Production elasticity of inputs (Sigma bi) was 1.66, which means increasing return to scale. In case of duplicating the inputs used, milk quantity is expected to increase by 1.66 times.