A eficiência na utilização da mão de obra em propriedades leiteiras no estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil.

Abstract

Dairy farming is an important sector of national agriculture, being present in all regions of Brazil. In order to have high efficiency, it is essential that there is quality in its production process. The workforce is one of the main elements that can contribute for dairy properties to become more efficient. In fact, research that investigates which elements linked to workforce influence the efficiency of their use can contribute for producers to be able to improve the quality of work in the dairy industry. Therefore, the objective was to analyze which characteristics contribute to the efficiency of the workforce of dairy farms in Minas Gerais, as well as which factors help to distinguish these properties. For this purpose, factor analysis was used to identify the main factors responsible for influencing the quality of the workforce on dairy farms at different levels of efficiency (low, medium and high). The results indicated the existence of five factors: family work, hiring, legalization, incentive and motivation. Legalization and motivation have been shown to be important in dairy farms regardless of their efficiency regarding the use of this resource. The other factors, however, were decisive to differentiate properties that have low and high efficiency. It is concluded that dairy properties should be concerned, mainly, with issues such as contracting, scale of production and incentives for them to be able to have high efficiencies in the use of labor.