Análise de rentabilidade de sistemas de produção de leite em compost barn e free stall: um comparativo

Abstract

Dairy cattle has great importance in the Brazilian economy, since Brazil is the sixth largest milk producer in the world. However, a productivity/cow/day is still far below the other countries and, in search of highest productions, many farms have been invested in more intensive systems such as: compost barn and free stall. The objective of this research was to analyze, comparatively, a profitability of systems of milk production that use compost barn and free stall. Specifically, it is also intended to: a) Analyze and compare the representativeness of the groups of expenses that compose the total operational cost; b) Analyze and compare the representativeness of mastitis and reproduction expenses; c) Estimate and compare gross and net margins; d) Analyze and compare the representativeness of the items that compose the gross revenue; e) Help producers and technicians to choose the most adequate type of installation for each farm. The data was collected from January to December 2016 from four farms, chosen using non-probabilistic sampling by judgment, two of them use the compost barn and two, the free stall. The milk cost production were estimated according to the methodology of the operating cost, considering the cost center milk production, that involved lactating and dry cows. In addition, were estimated the gross and net margins as profitability indicators. The results were compared by means of descriptive analysis, using MS Excel, grouped in tables, with the purpose of improving the presentation, comparison and discussion. It was concluded that the gross and net margins were not influenced by the type of farm installation, and were positive in all analyzed production systems. Among the components of the effective operational cost, the representativeness of the item drugs was lower in the farms that use compost barn, while the cost with bed of cows was lower in the free stalls farms. Both the depreciation and total operational cost were similar among installation types. Regarding the revenues, milk sales had a higher percentage in free stall farms, despite the high standard deviation and the revenue expectations of manure were similar among the production systems. Thus, since there were no significant differences between types of facilities, it is understood that management facilities, productivity, reproductive performance, animal health (hoof problems and mastitis), environmental issues, besides of water and bed material (sand, sawdust, coffee straw) availability should be the motivators of choosing one over the other.