Poland ranks top of best places to produce milk
The worldwide association of agricultural scientists, advisers and farmers rated a 50-cow herd in Poland as one of the most competitive situations for milk production in 2005, along with the following farm types: Argentina (1,400 cows), Pakistan (3 and 10 cows), Australia (600 cows) and Chile (43 cows).
IFCN compared 102 dairy farming situations in 33 countries.
Milk prices across the world ranged from €0.11 to €0.49 per litre of milk. Milk prices were highest in Switzerland, Norway and Canada. Farmers in Pakistan, Argentina and Ukraine received the lowest prices.
The "world market price for milk" worked out at 16.6 cent per litre, significantly under prices in the EU and US.
Significant relocation of milk production is predicted by the IFCN, continuing from the ongoing disappearance of 5% of dairy farmers per year in western Europe and North America.
Meanwhile, numbers grow by 2 or 3% per year in developing countries like India and China and also in eastern Europe.
IFCN analysts found that the milk-feed price ratio, which explains how much concentrate can be bought by selling a litre of milk, is very favourable in the US, at 2.8, which makes intensive or high milk yield farming systems profitable. In India, New Zealand and Switzerland, this price ratio is very unfavourable (from 1 to 1.5, making high input systems unviable).
The IFCN report contained the statistic that one person in every 10 on the planet lives on a dairy farm. There are an estimated 100 million dairy farms worldwide, and more than 500 million people are involved in milk production.
