title: Lamb Production Costs: Analyses of Composition and Elasticities Analysis of Lamb Production Costs.
abstract: Since lamb is a commodity, producers cannot control the price of the product they sell. Therefore, managing production costs is a necessity. We explored the study of elasticities as a tool for basing decision-making in sheep production, and aimed at investigating the composition and elasticities of lamb production costs, and their influence on the performance of the activity. A representative sheep production farm, designed in a panel meeting, was the base for calculation of lamb production cost. We then performed studies of: i) costs composition, and ii) cost elasticities for prices of inputs and for zootechnical indicators. Variable costs represented 64.15% of total cost, while 21.66% were represented by operational fixed costs, and 14.19% by the income of the factors. As for elasticities to input prices, the opportunity cost of land was the item to which production cost was more sensitive: a 1% increase in its price would cause a 0.2666% increase in lamb cost. Meanwhile, the impact of increasing any technical indicator was significantly higher than the impact of rising input prices. A 1% increase in weight at slaughter, for example, would reduce total cost in 0.91%. The greatest obstacle to economic viability of sheep production under the observed conditions is low technical efficiency. Increased production costs are more related to deficient zootechnical indexes than to high expenses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Nutrition and Animal Production, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Pirassununga, SP 13635-900, Brazil ; School of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Uberlandia, Uberlandia, MG 38400-902, Brazil .
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Raineri
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Nutrition and Animal Production, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Pirassununga, SP 13635-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: T S S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Stivari
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Nutrition and Animal Production, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Pirassununga, SP 13635-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Gameiro
keywords: Economic Analysis; Elasticity; Lamb; Production Cost; Production System; Technical Indicator