Typology of dairy production systems from West Parana State based on production indices and feed used

Abstract

The dairy industry is characterised by a wide diversity of production systems. In this diverse environment, some of the difficulties can be minimised through the grouping of production units through the study of typology. The objective was to characterise the systems of milk production from West Parana State by considering production rates, area, power, facilities, and marketing of milk. To this end, 735 semi-structured interviews with dairy farmers were performed by using a questionnaire for management practices and feed that is used on the farms. To obtain the explanatory variables used for principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), a homogeneous division of 735 farmers in five groups was used. Ten per cent of producers were randomly selected for the performance of field visits to the properties, where a new questionnaire was applied with specific points regarding feeding management on the property, and feed was collected to determine its composition. The collected data were tabulated and feed was ranked based on the classification proposed by the NRC (2001). Analyses of feed were carried out in the Laboratory of Animal Nutrition of Unioeste. The West Parana State has five groups of dairy production systems. There is great variability in the fresh forages that are used, but maize silage is the main forage utilised for fermented feed, and concentrate supplementation is adopted by more than 60% of farms during both seasons. Changes in the levels of feed components are high among systems.