A PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS OF DAIRY FEEDING SYSTEMS IN THE NORTHEAST

This study analyzes the use and profitability of three distinct feeding systems; confinement feeding, traditional grazing, and management-intensive grazing from a randomly selected sample of northeastern dairy farms. The confinement feeding farms were significantly larger and produced more milk per...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAgricultural and Resource Economics Review Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 220 - 228
Main Authors Winsten, Jonathan R, Parsons, Robert L, Hanson, Gregory D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.10.2000
Edition1203
Subjects
Livestock Production/Industries
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Summary:This study analyzes the use and profitability of three distinct feeding systems; confinement feeding, traditional grazing, and management-intensive grazing from a randomly selected sample of northeastern dairy farms. The confinement feeding farms were significantly larger and produced more milk per cow, while the farms using management-intensive grazing incurred the lowest production costs. Both confinement feeding and management-intensive grazing generated significantly higher rates of return to farm assets relative to farms using a mixed system. Multiple regression analysis confirms the critical importance of herd size, milk production per cow, debt level and veterinary expenses to farm profitability in all production systems.
DOI:10.22004/ag.econ.31299