The Production and Economic Results of Dairy Farms Belonging to the European Dairy Farmers in 2016

Abstract

the objectives of the work were to check the possibility of obtaining data from the FaDN system for the EDF survey and to compare the economic results achieved by dairy farms from the selected EU countries in 2016. the additional objective was to determine the profitability threshold for milk production at the level of general and full costs. the average data was used for the analysis within EDF and the Polish group and their tercyl separated due to the total cost of milk production. the average national results within EDF in 2016 were also analyzed. Measures for the evaluation of the results was the level of agricultural income, and income from management and risks in the dairy industry. two break even points of producing 100 kg of milk expressed by total and full costs were also assessed. the lowest total cost of production was incurred by the farm with large scale production, expressed as the number of cows in the herd and milk yield per cow. in addition, these farms were characterised by greater participation of grassland than arable land in forage area, of which more than half was rented. Polish and irish farms were characterised by the lowest total costs in milk production out of the analyzed countries. Based on the results relying on opportunity costs of own factors in milk production, it should be noted that the Polish farm obtained the lowest entrepreneur income. apart from irish farms, milk production in the analyzed countries in 2016 was unprofitable.

Competitiveness of Polish dairy farms in the European Union

“…The competitiveness of Polish agricultural holdings, including cattle and dairy farms, has been broadly analysed in the domestic literature (Sass 2017;Wilczyński and Kołoszycz 2017;Bórawski et al 2018;Parzonko 2018;Ziętara and Adamski 2018;Kołoszycz and Świtłyk 2019). The relevant studies differ mainly in the analysed period, sources of data, and the applied methodology.…”

“…The competitiveness of dairy farms in the international arena is usually investigated based on three sources of data: European Dairy Farmers (EDF), International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) and the European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network (EU FADN). Most of the research conducted by Kołoszycz and Świtłyk (2019) and Wilczyński and Kołoszycz (2017) relies on EDF and IFCN data, and milk production costs (usually per 100 kg of standardised milk) are the main parameter for evaluating the competitive advantage of dairy farms. This approach is also used by the researchers to coordinate the operations of International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) and European Dairy Farmers (EDF) (Iserrmeyer et al 2003).…”

“…This approach is also used by the researchers to coordinate the operations of International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) and European Dairy Farmers (EDF) (Iserrmeyer et al 2003). In one of their most recent studies, Kołoszycz and Świtłyk (2019) relied on EDF data to report that total production costs in 2016 were lowest in large-scale dairy farms with a high milk output. In the group of the compared EU countries, total production costs were lowest in Polish and Irish dairy farms.…”