OPTIMIZING THE HERD SIZE IN URBAN DAIRY FARMING IN TAMIL NADU  A QUADRATIC FUNCTION APPROACH

Shilpa Shree; J; A. Serma Saravana Pandian

Volume : IV, Issue : XI, November - 2015

OPTIMIZING THE HERD SIZE IN URBAN DAIRY FARMING IN TAMIL NADU A QUADRATIC FUNCTION APPROACH

Shilpa Shree, J, A. Serma Saravana Pandian

Abstract :

The Study was under taken to find out the optimum farm size in urban dairy farming in Tamil Nadu. A total sample size of 180 dairy cow farmers was selected from three urban milk shed areas of Tamil Nadu namely Chennai (Tambaram), Erode and Vellore for the present study. The farms were classified into small, medium and large based on the number of cows. To find out the optimum number of dairy cows to be maintained in the different farm size category, Quadratic function was used in which net profit per farm was taken as dependent variable and the farm size was taken as independent variable. The results of Quadratic function revealed that the optimum size was found to be 2.97, 4.76 and 10.6 respectively in small, medium and large farms and the average size of dairy farms were 1.66, 3.91 and 7.91 respectively in these categories of farms. This revealed that the average size of the dairy farms was far below the optimal size. Hence the maximum possible profit was not realized from these farms. From the results, it could be inferred that the small, medium and large categories of dairy farms should maintain at least 3, 5 and 10 cows respectively to reap up the maximum possible potential profit in the study area.