RT Journal Article
T1 A combined multi-variate statistical analysis to establish dairy farm typologies in Cantabria
A1 Vázquez González, Ibán
A1 García Suárez, Elena
A1 Ruiz-Escudero, Francisca
A1 García Arias, Ana Isabel
K1 Dairy farm categorisation
K1 Principal component factor analysis
K1 Hierarchical cluster analysis
K1 Northern Spain
K1 Complex sample
AB 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.
PB Elsevier
SN 0168-1699
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/34647
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/34647
LA eng
NO Computers and Electronics in Agriculture Volume 221 , June 2024, 109007
NO This work was supported by pre-doctoral contract FPI-INIA 2015-00016 (García-Suárez, 2021).
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026