Reflections of implementations of livestock production support policies on dairy farms in Turkey: The case of Burdur province

The main purpose of this study is to determine the reflection of the effect of the Turkish government's livestock production support policies on traditional and improved dairy (with fixed milking unit and the cooling tank) farms in Burdur province. The data were collected by using a survey method to randomly selected improved dairy farms (50) and traditional dairy farms (50) in the research area. The data were collected in 2012 farming period. In this study, Chi-square (χ2) analysis was performed to determine whether a difference existed between the dairy farms which improved and traditional in terms of the dairy farming practices, dairy farmers' utilization levels of livestock supports, technical and structural characteristics and socio-economic variables. In this study, the effects of livestock production support policies influence on traditional and improved dairy farms' incomes were also compared.According to research results, average gross production value and variable cost were determined to be 313.168,30 TL and 270.596,68 TL for improved dairy farms, while 114.656,24 TL and 102.916,53 TL for the traditional dairy farms, respectively. Average gross income was 42.571,62 TL for improved dairy farms and 11.739,71 TL for traditional dairy farms. The received average livestock support was calculated to be 48.542,46 TL per farm for the improved dairy farms and 11.546,01 TL per farm for the traditional dairy farms. Dairy farms average supported gross production value and supported gross income value were calculated to be 361.710,76 TL and 91.114,07 TL for improved dairy farms and 126.202,25 TL and 23.285,72 TL for the traditional dairy farms, respectively. The share of livestock production support effects on gross income were 15,50% for improved dairy farms and 10,07% for traditional dairy farms. Dairy farms average gross income and supported gross income values were calculated with using livestock unit (LU) and their values were 691,66 TL/LU and 1.481,50 TL/LU for improved dairy farms, while 452,15 TL/LU and 898,19 TL/LU for the traditional dairy farms, respectively. The result can be concluded that livestock supports policies which are used in dairy farms have strong effect on gross income.