A Model of Intensification of Dairy Production as an Alternative for the Modernization of Family Farming in the Tropics

Dairy farming is an activity of great socioeconomic relevance for family farming in Brazil, but is still characterized by low productivity, low technology employed, and low remuneration. The objective of this article is to verify how the indicators of technological intensification were aligned with gains in productivity indicators based on an irrigated grazing system under intermittent stocking, in a typical family farm in the south region of the Espírito Santo state. The farm from which data were collected was conveniently selected for having been monitored for 42 months, a period when the technological transition in a production model was occurred. The intermittent stocking management in the irrigated tropical pasture, in a module of 0.86 ha of Mombaça grass, has led to an increase in animal productivity (from 16 to 23 animal units per hectare), labor (96 liters of milk per family farming labor per day), and land indicators (from 219 to 349 liters of milk per hectare per day), but the increase in the scale of production is a limiting factor for competitiveness in the present case study. The proposed intensification model can become a feasible option for the modernization of dairy farming in tropics.