Dairy cattle in Tocantins state: production, productivity, prices and income

The article evaluates the production, productivity, prices and income behavior of dairy cattle in Tocantins state, Brazil. Time series from the period 1990–2015 were used to calculate the growth rates of the studied variables and, thus, to identify their behavior patterns. Monetary variables were corrected to eliminate the inflationary effect. Currently, Tocantins state is the third largest bovine milk producer in the northern region of Brazil and, between 1990 and 2015, production increased by 5.03% per year. The most influential variable was productivity, which had a growth rate of 3.29% per year, which represents a higher level of technology adoption in the activity. Tocantins' milk income showed a growth trend with a real increase of 2.17% per year. However, the price received by producers showed large fluctuations in the evaluated period and the observed geometric growth rate was -1.69% per year. We concluded that the dairy cattle production and income evolution is mainly due to the increased milked cow number and to productivity gains, since prices showed a declining trend in the analyzed period.