A combined multi-variate statistical analysis to establish dairy farm typologies in Cantabria

Abstract

In the last few decades, dairy farms have undergone an intense process of structural adjustment. Despite this, dairy farming remains the most important agricultural activity in Cantabria (northern Spain), with many different types of dairy farm existing. However, there are few studies that have characterised and established typologies to understand this diversity. This study aimed to develop a method for characterising and categorising all the dairy farms in Cantabria (farm population) from a productive, economic and social point of view using combined multi-variate analysis techniques, including principal component factor analysis (PCFA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). For this purpose, 86 surveys were conducted on dairy cattle farms in Cantabria from 2016 to 2017 using stratified random sampling optimised with Neyman’s minimum variance allocation. The results, which relate to all the dairy farms in Cantabria (SPSS complex sample module), have enabled us to characterise and categorise these farms. The sector is mostly made up of farms with low-production levels. Their main characteristics are the importance of rented land, the use of pasture, good production management, a notable absence of young owners, a strong family link and moderate economic viability. The PCFA synthesised 22 production and socio-economic variables into 8 factors that reproduce 77.7 % of variance, half of these factors being economic in nature. The HCA, which used a double decision criterion to define the optimum number of clusters, has classified the dairy farms in Cantabria into four production typologies, which differ in the level of agricultural activity, profitability and diversification. In addition, a fifth group of farms was identified as singular cases.