Abstract:

This study was carried out to investigate the structure of dairy farms such as demographic information, management practises, production values, marketing of milk and milk products in Diyarbakır province. In the study, face to face interviews were realized with the 192 dairy farms having 25 and more cattle including 17 district. According to the data collected, dairy enterprises in the region consisted of family based enterprises (90%), cooperative enterprises (7%) and private dairy farms (3%). Cattle breeds distribution in enterprises consist of 12% native breeds, 25% cross- breeds and 63% pure breeds. In dairy enterprises, distribution of cattle was found as 59.7 % of cow, 11.8 % of heifer, 26.1 % of calf, and 2.4 % of bull. The average number of cattle and milking cow per farm were found as 46.7 and 27.8 heads respectively. The type of dairy barns was determined as tie-stall (89%), semi-open (8%) and free-stall (%3) in the cattle enterprises. The average size of land 56% of dairy farm was found under the 50 decares. The 92% of the dairy enterprises declared that the income from dairy was insufficient and 86% were not satisfied as well. The 23% of the farms are used the artificial insemination only. In the herd, 71% of cows were milked by hand and 29% by milking machine. It was found that only 6% of farms sold their milk to dairy factories. This research is important in terms of providing an important data base relating to dairy farming in Diyarbakir province

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