Investigating Optimal Scale in Industrial Dairy Farms and Estimation of Effective Factors (Case Study: Selective Counties of Mazandaran Province)

Abstract

One of the effective and important factors in suitable using from inputs in firms is production scale of firm. According to effective role of milk production scale in dairy farm cost, determination of scale with minimum cost is necessary. In this study, optimal farm scale and milk production in dairy farm is investigated in Mazandaran province. Therefore, information of 50 industrial dairy farms in Sari, Babol and Ghaemshahr County is gathered. In this study for estimating optimal scale of herd, Dawson and Hubbard model was used. The results show that optimal scale of milk production in Sari, Babol and Ghaemshahr is 304059.6, 315532.4 and 281210.6 Kg respectively, that according to average annual yield for each dairy cow, optimal scale of herd in these counties is 72, 72 and 68 respectively. According to the results, improvement in production scale for achieving optimal production scale is suggested.