ANALYSES OF FACTORS THAT AFFECT MILK PRODUCTION AT FARM LEVEL AND BY BRAZILIAN ESTATES

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate some technical indexes that affect milk production by rural producer and by state of federation. In the first study, information were obtained from 50 rural producers, suppliers of a milk dairy plant in the south region of Rio de Janeiro, including the daily production of milk by a producer, the total area of the property, area for the dairy herd, lactating cows only and total cows from the herd, cooling mode, type and number of milkings, breeds and genetic improvement. In the second study, data were collected from EMBRAPA and IBGE in the years 2004-2006, where the emphasis was on milk production by State instead of production per producer. In both cases, the increase in milk production happens by increase in the number of animals in the herd (r=0.94; first case) and milking cows (r=0.93 and 0.95, respectively), with low correlation between productivity per animal and per area with milk production (r<0.20 and 0.60, respectively). Although emphasis has been given to increase in productivity, milk production is still more dependent on pasture extensions than in productive indexes.