Determining Factors Of The Profitability Of Dairy Farms In Castilla Y Leon

This work pursues a twofold objective, on the one hand a database of dairy farms is elaborated and, on the other hand, the factors determining their profitability are analysed through two indicators: the benefit per cow and the threshold production. For the first objective we took a representative sample of 30 dairy farms located in the autonomous community of Castilla y Leon during the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. From each of these farms we obtained data regarding livestock censuses, structure of tangible assets, income, costs and other variables that allow us to assess their economic-financial situation and to build the profitability indicators.To achieve the second objective, an ordinary least squares estimation over two multivariate econometric specifications was made, one for each indicator. In this way it is possible to obtain the ceteris paribus effect of each explanatory variable included in the regression. Results show the importance of some cost and income components to explain firms' profitability. There are also relevant effects of the farm size, annual controls or provincial dummy variables indicating the place where the firm is located.