Study technical-economic and sensitivity studies on a milk-beef double purpose system in Colón municipio, Zulia state, Venezuela

The present work had as objective to carry out a technic-economic study and sensitivity of a double purpose milk-beef system, located in Colon municipo, at Zulia state. The Unit of Production had 625 hectares, of which 460 hectares were cultivated grasses and the rest native grasses, managed in rotative form. The herd was integrated by 286 cows, 76% of perijanero mosaic type with tendency toward Holstein. The other 24% had a high degree of cebu inheritance. It was carried out two daily manual milking, supplemented with 1.5 kg/cow/milking. Calves were suckled twice a day by half-an hour post milking. There were considered the countable records belonging to the economic period from January 1 to December 31, 1999. Data were analyzed by means of the program Ecoanálisis-DP. The costs were organized in a format of fixed and variable, monetary and not monetary costs. Gross margin, total costs by cow and by herd, cost to produce a liter of milk, and the profitability were calculated. A study of sensitivity was applied to the variable interval between births (IEP) and to the price of milk. The analysis showed an annual return of capital of 0.5%, with a profit of 0.2%. The cost of a liter of milk to cover the total costs of production was 187.31 Bs/l. The analysis of sensitivity indicated that in a reduction of 10 days in the IEP, the producer does not gain 598.4 Bs/cow/day, determining the high grade of importance of this productive coefficient in connection with the variable price of the milk. It was demonstrated that when the price of milk diminish in 10 Bs/l, the property under the current conditions of handling does not guarantee a production of profitable milk. The obtained profit is a consequence to the high costs of the capital working (34.24%), manpower and services to operate (67.4%), which can be added to the high value of the land in that area. Ecoanálisis-DP is a simple technic-economic evaluation instrument, besides being very flexible. Its combination with analysis of technological functionality, allows to develop alternatives that might improve the productive efficiency of the system