Unit milk cost and profitability of dairy cattle farms supported and non-supported by IPARD program: A case study of Konya, Turkey

The animal production value is 59% of total plant and animal production value in Turkey while the 35% of this production is the value obtained from animal products. The most important of these animal products is milk with 22 million tons of production. With the Pre-accession Assistance-Rural Development (IPARD) program supports implemented within the scope of EU compliance process, it was aimed to establish highly competitive dairy farms. The aim of this study was to compare the milk production cost and the profitability of dairy farms, supported and non-supported by the IPARD program in Konya which has an important place in milk production in Turkey. In the milk production cost and profitability calculations of the farms, according to the purpose of the study, the farms were not evaluated as a whole, they evaluated only by taking into account the dairy cattle production activity. The primary data of the study were obtained from dairy farms supported and non-supported by the IPARD program by using a questionnaire filled during the face-to-face interviews. Full count method was used to determine the 50 dairy farms supported by IPARD Program (SDF) while Neyman allocation sampling method was used to determine the 100 dairy farms non-supported by IPARD program (NSDF). As a result of the study; considering the average values of the NSDF, gross profit per LAU was $719.97, net profit per LAU was $18.64, unit milk cost was $0.37 per kg and milk sales price was $0.38 per kg while these values were $1,398.58, $566.27, $0.33 per kg and $0.40 per kg respectively for SDF . SDF had lower unit milk costs and higher profits than NSDF had. NSDF has failed in their dairy cattle production activities and they have been maintaining their sustainability as a result of their plant production activities.