Efficiency of Biological and Economic Indicators in Production Systems in Dairy Farms

Abstract

The efficiency of the livestock system is one of the factors of greatest social and economic interest in rural areas. The objective of the project was to evaluate different biological and economic indicators that allow identifying the most efficient dairy cows in grazing systems with supplementation of the dairy basin of Antioquia-Colombia. Retrospective data from 2009 to 2019 were used from dairy farms in the municipalities (Entrerríos, San Pedro and Belmira). These production systems present characteristics common to most of the dairy companies distributed in the north of Antioquia, they are characterized by being grazing dairy systems with different supplementation regimes. The farms have their own records and official milk control from the cooperatives or associations from which the data were obtained. The productive categories were ordered according to the number of calving and within each subgroup they were ordered by the total liters per lactation in ascending order, productive, reproductive, health and economic variables of the cows evaluated were recorded. Then cuts were made; obtaining three thirds of similar size, thus forming three categories: low, medium and high production. It was possible to determine the model that showed four groups of variables (breed, milk production by lactation, days open and silage), with an important correlation of 100% and greater contribution to the behavior of the cost of the liter, obtaining an R2 of 0.91 (p <0.05) and a prediction error of (US $ 0.0076) per liter of milk in the farms evaluated. It is concluded that, with few biological and economic predictive indicators, it was possible to identify the most efficient cows in grazing systems, these indicators were integrated into a simple and easy-to-execute web application module, which allows to significantly predict the productive impact. And, Decision-making on the sustainability of dairy companies.