Italy: Performance and Costs of Italian Dairy Farms S/STEMA STALLA
The goal of the S/STEMA STALLA project is to assess the competitiveness of Italian dairy Farms in view of the future abolition of the EU milk quota system. CLAL selected a group of dairy Farmers of Northern Italy having a special interest in performance analysis and costs and sent out its Team to assess the herd management on these Farms and to collect dairy farm data.
Dairy Farms in the project
The group of dairy Farms monitored in the project is not a representative sample of Italian farms but rather a
selection of farms having a special interest in performance analysis and costs. This has been confirmed by the results
of the study.
The data displayed refer to the 2012 calendar year. Sixteen (16) dairy Farms of Northern Italy were included in the project;
these are shown on the map below with their respective herd size.
The bar chart below ranks the dairy Farms based on the number of lactating cows. The colour of the first horizontal bar, which measures the number of lactating cows, is based on the destination of the milk produced: blue for Liquid Milk, orange for the production of Grana Padano and green for the production of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
By opening the following page it is possible to compare the structure of dairy farms in Italy and in Europe.
UE-27: Dairy Farm Structure Show/Hide
The charts below are a snapshot of the current structuring and herd size of dairy farms in some European countries.
Comparisons should be made based on the overall structure and not on absolute values (the scales in the various charts differ).
The second row of charts allows a comparison between the four most productive Italian Regions.
With the abolition of the EU milk quota system competitiveness is going to depend only on milk price and on dairy Farm performance and costs. Following is the Performance, Returns and Costs of dairy Farms.
PERFORMANCE (2012) S/STEMA STALLA
Performance measurements of dairy Farms in the S/STEMA STALLA project:
| Country | Year | Milk per cow (tons) |
| Italy | 2011 | 6.17 |
| Germany | 2010 | 6.88 |
| France | 2010 | 6.28 |
| Ireland | 2010 | 4.97 |
| The Netherlands | 2010 | 7.86 |
| Poland | 2010 | 3.59 |
| Sources: EUROSTAT, AGEA, AIA | ||
Israel 2011: 24.4 months
Source: The Israeli Herdbook 2011
Performance of Dairy Farms
The new spider web chart allows to compare the performance indicators of the dairy Farms included in the project.
By entering the data of your dairy Farm in a simple form it is possible to
compare its performance with the Farms participating in the project.
RETURNS (2012) S/STEMA STALLA
In the sample, revenues from CAP subsidies (European Common Agricultural Policy) have a greater weight in smaller sized farms.
Average Returns from CAP subsidies
for Farms with more than 200 cows: 5.2% of total returns
for Farms with less than 200 cows: 6.6% of total returns
The table to the side shows a simulation of the possible impact of a CAP correction on dairy Farms with more than 200 cows.
The value is expressed as a percentage of total returns and compared, as an example, with tangible farm expenses.
COSTS (2012) S/STEMA STALLA
The chart below records the monthly variations of the market value of concentrated animal feed.
It presents the market value of a Simulated Feed Ration, a theoretical
feed model exclusively based on the use of corn and soybean extraction meal 44%; this has been taken as a
model since the two constituent ingredients are the price drivers for all the raw materials available on the market.
The composition of the Simulated Feed Ration is as follows:
| Corn meal | 70% | Raw proteins as fed | 19% |
| Soybean extraction meal 44% protein | 30% | Value in MFU | 1,05 |
The monthly price of the products corresponds to the average monthly quotation of the Commodities Exchange of the Milan Chamber of Commerce.
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