Economic Situation of Farms in Poland Oriented at Milk Production after the Accession to the European Union

The basic aim of the conducted research is to show the influence of the scale of production, measured with a size of a herd of cows on the productivity of the basic means of production (land, work, capital), and on the financial situation of farms orientated at milk production in Poland after accession to the European Union. Data concerning macroeconomic conditionings as well as data coming from farms running farm accountancy - Polish FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network) in the years 2004- 2006, where dairy cattle was the dominating direction of production (TF41) or a prevailing one, were used for the analysis). Farms were grouped according to an annual average number of kept cows into the following groups: up to 10, 10-20, 2040, 40-60 and above 60. The analysis of the milk orientated farms shows strong connections between the area of farms, employment as well as value of the property engaged at a farm. Together with the scale of production the share of fixed assets slightly decreases, while the level of indebtedness, especially long-term, increases. The investment possibilities of the farm also change. The dairy efficiency of cows shows a strong connection with the scale of production. Farms with the biggest scale of production obtain about 60% more milk from a cow per a year than farms keeping up to 10 cows. Productivity of the basic means of production (land, work and capital) depends heavily on the scale of production. It is especially observed in case of economic productivity of work, which at farms with the biggest scale of production is about 5-6 times higher than at farms with the smallest scale. On farms which keep over 60 cows the income was almost 18-times higher than on farms breeding up to 10 cows. The analysis of the production costs indicates that the most favourable level of costs is observed on farms keeping between 20 and 60 cows.