4 Results and Discussion
4.3 Group III, Large Scale Farm
4.4.1 Cross comparison of farm household survey results
The results of the farm household survey are compared for the key variables observed in all three farm types. The mean values are compared to show similarities and differences among the farm types in household and milk production parameters.
The key differentiating factor found on the basis of demographics is that the large farm types have large family size of 14 members.29 The age of the farm manager is higher in large farm types as compared to small and medium farm types. Interestingly it is found that the experience of the farmers is observed highest as 31 years in small scale farms and lowest of 17 years in medium type farms. The reason behind this difference is that in case of small scale farm, the farmer’s son is engaged in farming from an early age as compared to medium and large size farms due to lack of schooling. To verify this argument, it is found that the managers/owners of small-scale farms get lesser chance of education due to poor economic conditions as compared to large farms which have better economic condi-tions. The average number of years of school attended is almost double in medium size farms as compared to small scale farms.
The highest education rate is found in large farm types that showed that the farmers have attended 12 years of schooling on average. The level of education is an important factor to transform knowledge about new technologies and is found that they are relatively more motivated to adopt new technologies as compared to less educated farmers (table 34).
Table 34: Farm household’s demographics
Family size nos 10.57 11.00 14.17
Farm manager's age years 49.76 46.89 56.00
Experience years 31.43 16.67 29.50
School attended years 4 9 11
Sm all scale M edium scale Large scale
Source: Results of the farm household’s survey.
29 It may be contradicting in the real situation; usually the small farms have large family size as more workforce is considered as sign of prosperity (KUROSKI, 1998).
The farm household’s income is seen to increase with the increase of farm size. The in-crease in farm income shows a correlation with the farm size. The off-farm income shows significant differences among three farm types which is mainly due to the investment availability with a farm type.
The dairy income showed significant differences among all the three farm types. The reason behind this difference is mainly due to the size of milking herd and secondly the differences in genetic potential, animal husbandry and farm management practices of farm types (ZAFAR, 1985; KUROSAKI, 1995; FISCHER, 2000).
The small farm type shows the lowest dairy income of Rs 34,000 while the medium scale farm has almost double the income. The large-scale farms have three times higher dairy in-come as compared to small-scale farms. The crop inin-come shows similar increasing trend with the increase of farm size.
The other farm income is mainly seen in small and medium type farms. Since the small scale farms tend to depend more on different sources of income due to their risk aversion nature.
The share of other farm income is higher in small-scale farms and decreases for the medium size farms. The other farm income mainly comes from the sale of other livestock animals which are mainly goat, sheep and poultry, etc. Most of the large-scale farm types are not in-volved in other farm activities (table 35).
Table 35: Farm household’s income
Off-farm income Rs/year 19,800 90,667 126,667
Dairy income Rs/year 34,228 60,700 118,708
Crop income Rs/year 32,450 148,778 450,417
Other farm income (livestock, etc.) Rs/year 5,571 5,333
Households income Rs/year 91,106 305,478 695,792
Small scale Medium scale Large scale
Source: Results of the farm household’s survey.
The landholding is the key factor considered for the classification of farms into small, me-dium and large types. The small farm types have on average total cultivated land of 4 acres while medium and large farm have 14 and 38 acres respectively found under mixed cropping system in Sargodha region. The cultivated land includes both the owned and rented land.
Under mixed cropping system, the major use of land is seen under cash crops which vary from 66 to 87 percent. Proportion wise the area under fodder cultivation is seen higher in small farm types as compared to large scale farm types (table 36).
Table 36: Land allocation
Total cultivated land acres 4 13.77 37.42
Area under cash crops acres 3 11.44 33.08
Area under fodder crops acres 1 2.32 4.33
Share of area under cash crops % 66% 83% 87%
Share of area under fodder crops % 29% 17% 13%
Small scale Medium scale Large scale
Source: Results of the farm household’s survey.
The comparison of the capital investment made in the form of farm assets as farm equip-ment and building (table 37). The small farm type has made a small capital investequip-ment in farm equipment and building. The farm operations are done most of the times manually or the required machinery especially the tractor for tillage operations is hired from other large farmers in the village.
The investment in farm building is mainly driven by the size of the animal herd and the economic conditions of the farmer. The medium and large scale farms have made signifi-cant capital investment in farm machinery and equipment due to the size of their opera-tions (table 37). The animal housing trend is very simple in the region. They are con-structed only to keep animals during harsh weather conditions specially to protect against cold wave during the winter months. Since winter lasts only for 3 months and rest of the year it is hot. So this building is used most of the time to store animal feed and agricul-tural produce. Only a few progressive farms have prepared proper sheds that can be used round the year but none of such farm was included in the survey.
The housing structure of the small farm type is very poor and lacks protection against harsh weather conditions. Due to un-hygienic conditions the small farms have showed higher mortality rate especially in calves.
Table 37: Farm assets
Value of farm equipment Rs 23,350 209,556 601,500
Value of farm building Rs 52,471 104,942 150,833
Small scale Medium scale Large scale
Source: Results of the farm household’s survey.
The family labour engagement is observed to be highest in small scale farm types. All of farm labour requirements are fulfilled from family resources due to enough availability of family members in the household.
The medium and large farm types face shortage of labour availability due to more quirement of labour due to large size of operations. They tend to fulfil their labour re-quirement through hired labour. In most of the cases of medium and large farm types, the children go to school and after finishing education, they get employment opportunities in the urban areas. The labour availability is a big concern for large farm types under mixed cropping system (table 38).
Table 38: Family labour
Family labour hours/year 4,784 4,036 2,816
Hired labour hours/year 13 1,466 3,881
Family labour share % 99% 78% 43%
Small scale Medium scale Large scale
Source: Results of the farm household’s survey.
The average herd size and milking animals show an increasing trend from small scale to medium and large scale farm types. The average number of buffaloes is 2 in case of small farm type, 3 in case of medium size farm and 7 are in large scale farm type. Over all among all three farm types, buffalo is the main dominating animal. The proportion of cows is seen higher in medium size farm types as compared to other types. All farm types raise heifers to replace older and low yielding animals (table 39).
Table 39: Dairy parameters
Herd size nos 7.29 11.33 18.50
Milking animals nos 3.52 5.67 9.83
Buffaloes nos 2.14 3.22 6.67
Buffalo share % 63% 55% 73%
Milk yield per animal kg/year 1,675 2,068 2,672
Cows nos 1.45 2.44 3.80
Calves nos 2.15 3.22 5.17
Heifers nos 1.62 2.33 4.00
Bulls nos 0.11 0.11 0.33
Source: Results of farm household´s survey.
Small scale Medium scale Large scale
The milk yield per animal varies significantly among all the three farm types. The small scale farm types are low yielding due to poor genetic potential of milk animals, poor feed-ing and management as compared to medium and large scale farm types. There is a sig-nificant difference among all the three farm types in terms of daily milk produced per day as well.
The milk sales are the key feature of all the farm types found under the mixed cropping system. All farm types sell milk and the sales volume depends on the surplus milk left from home consumption. The small scale farm types sell higher proportions of their total milk produced which is about 40 percent compared to 22 and 25 percent in medium and large farm types (BHATTI et al., 1989; ZAFAR, 1985).
The highest home consumption of milk is observed in large scale farm type. The large scale farms consume more milk as a liquid and also to make various indigenous dairy products like butter oil (desi ghee), butter and butter milk (lassi), etc. There is not a sig-nificant difference of milk prices observed among the entire three farm types as they fol-low more or less similar strategy for sale of milk. The milk prices showed higher milk prices for buffalo milk and lower for cow milk in all three farm types (SCHINZEL, 1979b) (table 40).
Table 40: Milk sales and home consumption
Milk produced kg/day 11 21 51
Milk sale kg/day 4 6 16
Share of milk sales % 39% 22% 25%
Home consumption kg/day 7 16 36
Price of buffalo milk Rs/kg 18.6 18.8 19
Price for cow milk Rs/kg 13.5 12.6 12.5
Small scale Medium scale Large scale
Source: Results of the farm household’s survey.