Structure of Dairy Cattle Holdings and Market Supply of Milk: The Case of İzmir Province, Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to determine the production structure of dairy cattle farms and to investigate the problems related to dairy cattle husbandry and offer solutions to these problems in İzmir province which has an important share in the milk production of the Aegean Region. The main material of the study was obtained from face to face surveys conducted with 102 dairy producers calculated by stratified random sampling in İzmir province in 2014. According to the results, the average number of family members in the farms is 4, and the experience of the producers on dairy cattle farming was average 23 years. The most important issue for farmers in dairy cattle husbandry is the high feed cost and also unstable prices in feed and milk. Moreover, 52.9% of producers stated that the biggest problem in the dairy cattle industry is high feed prices. It is also found that 39.4% of producers sell milk to collectors. The amount of quality roughage should be increased so that the cost of the producer should be reduced and the continuity of production should be ensured.