Perspectives on continuity, milk quality and environment in milk production units in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the productivity, the sale price of milk, the size and the perceptions of their owners about their environment, quality and permanence in milk production farms in the state of Aguascalientes. Forty milk production units, with similar conditions of age (30 years), zootechnical management, availability of inputs and customers, were evaluated. The productive characteristics of the farms in relation to the herd size factor were compared through a MANOVA. A structural model was formulated to evaluate the effect of environmental factors on milk quality and farmers' intention to continue production units in the dairy activity. A positive influence was found on the productive scale of dairy farms, the obtaining of higher daily productivity per cow, better perception of quality and the sale price of milk. In the model, environmental factors were significantly associated with the assessment of milk quality by producers and their permanence in the dairy activity (14.2 and 22.7 %, respectively). This confirms that the perception of environmental factors could be considered as a crucial variable to increase milk quality, productivity and for the meeting between the interests of producers and the agribusiness, as well as to favor the performance and integration of the different links in the dairy production chain and boost the global competitiveness of the Mexican agri-food sector.