Productive characterization of dairy farms in three regions of the Colombian high tropic.

Introduction: In the Colombian high tropic, the milk production is one of the main economic activities for the sustenance of many families; however, in some cases the productive performance is low and is reflected in the farmer's profit. Justification: Each farm is a scenario that is important to understand in a particular way and as part of the associativity schemes of the producers, so that those differential factors can influence the improvement of the productive performance of the farms. Objective: To analyze the productive performance of farms belonging to four associations dedicated to milk production in the high tropic of Colombia. Methods: 44 dairy farms located in the municipalities of Cucunubá (Cundinamarca), Belén and Santa Rosa de Viterbo (Boyacá) and Pasto and Cumbal (Nariño) were selected. Data on milk production, compositional quality and profit were obtained, which were used for the classification of producers through a principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis, the characterization of the groups obtained was carried out by descriptive statistics. Results and Discussion: Four groups of farms were identified (1, 2, 3 and 4), made up of 9, 10, 15 and 10 producers, respectively. The monthly production of liters of milk per hectare was 589.3L, 258.5L, 934.1L and 666.1L for group categories 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Group 3 was made up of 73% farms from the Cumbal association, which had a better value per liter of milk for compositional quality, while the highest average value of daily production per cow (13. 8L), was presented in group 2 with a greater participation of farms from Cundinamarca (70%). Conclusion: The compositional quality of milk represents a differentiating factor for the profit of farmers, especially in a context of payment for quality. Within associations, milk quality programs must guarantee the collective effort and benefit of members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]