Abstract

VELASCO FUENMAYOR, Julia; ORTEGA SOTO, Leonardo; URDANETA, Fátima  and  SANCHEZ C, Egar. Relationship between level of technology and productivity índices of dual-purpose cattle farms located on the Maracaibo lake basin. Rev. Cient. (Maracaibo) [online]. 2009, vol.19, n.1, pp.84-92. ISSN 0798-2259.

In order to study the relationship between the levels of technology and productivity indicators of dual-purpose cattle farms located in the Jesus E. Lossada, La Cañada de Urdaneta y Rosario de Perijá Municipalities, 102 farms were selected by random sampling and K-mean algorithm to create the technological groups. Three technological groups (TGs) were identified: low (TG₁), middle (TG₂) and high (TG₃). Later, the partial productivity means of different groups were compared by variance analysis and the Duncan test was utilized to evaluate the differences among the means. The TG₃ showed high partial productivity in several indicators but only milk liters by total-cow and by labor productivity were statistically significant (P<0.05). Also, economical indicators such as income by total-cow, total income, profit and gross profit resulted statistically different from TG₂ and TG₁. These results allow concluding that TG₃ showed a higher herd and labor productivity and lower cost-income relationship due to differences in the farm management of TG₃ with respect to other groups. There is a straightforward relationship among technological levels and economical indicators. Profit and gross profit increases as the farm move into higher technological level.

Keywords : Levels of technology; productivity in cattle-farms; K-means.