Economias de escala e processo de produção de ovos na Região Sul de Minas Gerais

Abstract

In southern Minas, poultry farming for egg production is of great economic importance, not only for supplying part of the state but also because of exporting the product to other regions, thus contributing to local producers' income. Thus its growth must be guided and planned,so as to avoid problems caused by. fluctuations in the prices of input and product, affecting the economic feasibility of businesses and also to acquire an understanding of production structure from the point of view of guiding poultry farmer's planning decisions. The objectives qf this study were: a)to describe the aspect of the region»s egg production process b)to analyse both the production cosfs structure and the feasibility of poultry business in southern Minas c) to establish a relationship between production volume and fluctuations in market prices. The área was chosen because of the great concentration óf egg-layers and the already existing high volume of production in the region. A sample of 34 producers was taken fron the area's main "Poultry Poles" which number 133 poultry farners; they were intervieméd by the survey method. The data collected were grouped in leveis by means of tabular analysis and later adjusted to polynomials functions by using least squares, having as a independent variable the volume of the quantity produced in egg boxes and as the dependent variables the average total cost and the total cost of the egg box, respectively, in the first trimer of 1978, expressed in cruzeiros. From the analysis of the results, it was concluded that the majority of poultry farmers, about 42%, use the battery farming system, with cages for re-breeding and cages for egg laying while 48% of the breeders constantly mix the feed on the property and only 20% grade the eggs mechanícally. Prophylaxis against illnesses is through vaccination; however, this practice requires the beeders*greater attention from the standpoint of correct use of vaccines. Management practices set the region's poultry farming at an acceptable standard, especially for leveis B and C, this falt being reflected in the techical coeficients, such as: nutritional conversion 2.00, mortality rate in re-breeding 4.10, mortality rate in egg-laying 1.20, which were on normal leveis. The majority of production, about 49%, is sold to the Rio de Janeiro market, followed immediately by the city of Belo Ho rizonte with 27%- As for production costs,food (rations) is the most important item, representing 53% in average terms, next thedepreciation of the egg-layer with 19% and castly the flow of capi tal in improvements, machines and tools taking up 15% of the total •cost. These 3 components, taken together, represent 87% of the to tal production costs, a reason why they deserve the poultry farmers' special attention. Average costs decreased as the volume produced increa sed. On the other hand, the function of average cost,when adjusted, did not allow the calculation of the quantity produced needed to bring down the average cost, but observations made and the data abtained showed that it is suitable to work with businesses which have more than 10,303 birds,with a minimum of 7,636 egg - laying, producing more than 427 boxes per month figuring thereby in levei 3 or above. Furthermore, the study made shows poultry farming avera ge feasibility in the region was 21,6%, and that a few poultry farmer1s hold most of eggs production. On extrapolating from the findings, it was observed that: changes proposed in the study, the smallest in average ear nings, fixing the average cost and even increasing it, resulted in different phases of production for profit-making; changes, the grea test in the average cost, fixing average earnings resulted in above -average profit, thoughout production, even up to an increase of 11% in the average cost.