title: Work organization on smallholder dairy farms: a process unique to each farm.
abstract: The way smallholder farms organize and carry out work impacts their ability to secure their livelihoods and meet growing demand for agricultural products. This study investigates the way dairy family farms in Brazil manage their workforce to achieve their objectives of production and income. Fifteen smallholder farms were surveyed using the QuaeWork method to understand the work organization on each farm. A high diversity of workloads was found, but these do not appear to be strictly related to the farms' production systems. The high variability of workloads is linked to the available workforce, technical choices, and the delegation of tasks to an external workforce. Farmers can decrease their workload by adopting milking mechanization, silage, hiring labor, and increasing the duration of the work day. Work organization depends on a farmer's personal choices, rendering the whole issue of workforce management a process unique to each farm.
authors.affiliation: INRA, UMR 1273 Métafort, Theix, 63122, Saint Genès Champanelle, France. nhostiou@clermont.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hostiou
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UMR Innovation, 34398, Montpellier, France.|EMBRAPA Amazonia Oriental, Trav. Dr. Eneas Pinheiro s/n, CP 48, 66095-100, Belém, PA, Brazil.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cialdella
authors.affiliation: Montpellier SupAgro, 2 Place Viala, 34060, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vazquez
authors.affiliation: EMBRAPA Amazonia Oriental, Trav. Dr. Eneas Pinheiro s/n, CP 48, 66095-100, Belém, PA, Brazil.
authors.forename: Artur Gustavo
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UMR Innovation, 34398, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Yves
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Le Gal
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D002417:Cattle; D003612:Dairying; D006801:Humans; D007774:Lactation; D008297:Male; D008892:Milk / Q000378:metabolism*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload
keywords: Brazil; Labor; Task duration; Variability; Workload