Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXII, Issue 1
Written by Ylli BIÇOKU, Medin ZEQIRI2, Grigor GJEÇI, Ergent PIRE
The aim of this paper was to analyze the economic efficiency of dairy cattle farms in Albania and Kosovo. It’s a descriptive and quantitative survey and the target populations were the dairy farmers in six regions of Albania and seven regions of Kosovo. The random sampling technique was used to select the respondents in both countries (in Albania 79 farms and in Kosovo138 farms), in Albania from the list of the Regional Agricultural Directories and in Kosovo from the list of Paying Agency. Two methods of data analysis were used, namely: descriptive statistics, and gross margin analysis. The objective of this study was the comparison of the performance of the 5-10 cows farms (considered small farms) and 11cows farms (considered medium/large sized dairy farms). Data on: milk production, farm expenses and returns, use of milking machine, artificial insemination, fodder production, and feed bought in the market for each farm were recorded during the period 2015-2016. In Kosovo, the Gross Margin per Farm from milk and meat and Gross Margin per Farmfrom milk for the farms with 5-10 milking cows have negative values -318 Euro/farm and -673 Euro/farm, respectively, while the 11+ cows farms have positive values (3743 Euro/farm and 922 Euro/farm, respectively). While in Albania, as average the GMpF milk+meat and GMpF milk in both type of farms have positive results, however 15.8 percent of the 5-10 cows are showing negative results for the GMpF milk (loosing money), while for the 11+ cows farms this indicator is 31.7 percent, as the cost of production is very high. Taking into account the results obtain is a must that extension service to train the farmers for better: management of their farm, feeding system, fodder production, animal health etc
[Read full article] [Citation]
