To analyze the evolution of the production of milk in Argentina, we observe a tendency to the concentration of the drums, a phenomenon that happens in Argentina, as in the rest of the world, and implicitly sets a path of escalation in the production. Year after year we find ourselves with a less number of dairy farms in activity at the same time that production is growing in a context of increasing individual production and load increases animal facility. In the chart “Evolution of the systems of production,” we can see the evolution of the five-year up to the year 2020 and a projection to 2025 for the various indicators that describe the dynamics of systems of production. The causes of reduction of dairy farms in Argentina started up, in the sixties, with the advent of the computer milking automatic which allowed the establishments milk producers finish with milking hand and put together two or more drums in a bigger one. This reduced, as it was adopting the technology, the existence of drums in half in a short time. In Argentina we currently estimate that, in general, there are more than 1 dairy producer and the trend continues in force: the incorporation of technology allows you to work with drums larger. When the reduction of tanks, occurs within the same company the amount of cows tends to be maintained. When this does not happen, about 15-20% of the cows are going to the fair and 80-85% thickening the rodeo from another establishment.
In the following chart we can see how in the last 13 years has fallen by 8.1% in the number of dairy farms in activity, marking a drop more to the drums of less than 4,000 lt/d (-8,9%) is almost double compared with the -4,3% observed in the disappearance of dairy farms of more than 4,000 lt/d. What is interesting to see is that in the same period, the total milk production in Argentina grew +9,1% estimated a difference of 900 million litres extra for 2021. The gap productive between the drums of plus size versus the smaller is expanded.
In the course of the past 30 years, Argentina experienced this concentration “creole”, where we find ourselves with more cows per dairy farm, but NO more watery, or more personal, housing, etc., which were also growing health problems, reproductive, die-offs, explaining in good measure to the reduction of the national rodeo.
The case of the slaughter of cows is paradigmatic: to reduce the power of attention of the cow by the operator, by a substantial increase in cows/person on the drums, we went from 4% to 5% mortality annual 8-9%. Access to technology current, as is the use of collars and door apartadoratoday it allows to significantly reduce the carnage and making it to the 4-5%. The improvement in care of the health of the animals (consider that the collar detects an anomaly in the rumen 2-3 days before an operator trained) also improves the production per cow. This access to technology is observed mainly in the dairy farms with more than 4,000 lt/d so that the gap is going to go bigger, generating a greater detriment of the competitiveness of the drums more guys.
Access to reasonable financing for projects of technological investment, among other things, would be active policies that this gap does not follow magnifying, putting in serious danger to the half of the dairy farms in Argentina.
