Analysis of Production Costs on Dairy Farms within the EDF (European Dairy Farmers) Network

Lead Institute BW Institute of Farm Economics

dairy cows in a freestall barn

Due to the liberalisation of agricultural markets German dairy farmers face increasing competition regarding market shares on the world milk market. What are their chances?

Background and Objective

Changes in political framework conditions force German dairy farmers to face more and more conditions of the world milk market as well as new competitors from other member states. How German dairy farmers are positioned in the market and how the German dairy sector will develop is regularly analysed on the basis of statistical data and continuative surveys among dairy farmers. The aim of this project is to know the productions costs for milk in different European Countries and to deduct conclusions about the competitiveness of different European Countries.

Approach

Annual analysis and comparison of the economical and technical performance of about 300 individual dairy farms from all over Europe.

Data and Methods

Farm accounting data, questionnaire survey, statistical analysis

Preliminary Results

Differences in production costs are often higher within countries than between countries.
Local conditions (e.g. yield potential of the site, legal regulations, general price level) and factor availability (e.g. land, labour) have a significant influence on the production system and production costs.