RESEARCH ON MILK COST, RETURN AND PROFITABILITY IN DAIRY FARMING

The paper aimed to the relationship between milk cost in terms of material cost and labor cost and estimate theinfluence of these costs on returns coming from milk and profitability in 5 small dairy farms from the SouthernRomania. The main economic indicators taken into consideration were: material cost, Xi, (feeding cost, replacingheifer, equipment and shed depreciation, electricity and water cost, fuel and lubricants cost) , labour cost, Y, andincome coming from milk, Z. The Cobb-Douglas regression function Z= a xα yβ was used to determine the variationof the studied economic indicators and relationships between them. Taking into account the close relationshipbetween income from marketed milk and material cost and labor cost, it is enough to use it as the only criterion infarm classification. Profitability in dairy farms depends both on cost input and milk output as well as milk marketprice.