Maidontuotantoon investoineiden kirjanpitotilojen kannattavuuskehitys vuosina 1996-1999

Dairy farmers have been keen on investing to improve the profitability of production at the end of 1990's. The goal of farmers has been to achieve economies of size by enlarging milk production. Investments in new technology cause also costs to the farms. The aim of this study was to examine the profitability of the dairy farms that have made a major investment during the years 1996-1999. The data consist of the results of 53 bookkeeping farms that are specialised in milk production. The farms had invested on the average FIM 0.23 million in their dairy production facilities. The data were divided into quartiles according to the profitability of the farms in 1996. The number of cows increased by 52 % and the number of hectares by 22 % after the investment. At the end of the examined period, the average number of cows was 28 and there were about 51 hectares of arable land on the farms. The study shows that the economical performance of investing dairy farms recovers slowly after the investment, but that most farms can improve their profitability. The lowest quartile had the most favourable development and thus the differences in profitability between quartiles diminished during the period in question. Milk production had not yet reached its full extent on every farm in 1999 and we can expect that the profitability of the production will be better after few years while the whole production capacity will be utilised.