Typology, classification and characterization of farms for agricultural production planning

Agricultural activity in Galicia, North West Spain, is carried out on farms that are characterized by a diversity of land use and production models, a variety of farm sizes, and considerable geographical dispersion. Any attempt of Agricultural Production Planning aimed at characterizing production models requires a method of analysing data and obtaining technical-economic results from farms in the different areas. Models based on average statistical data are limited because they represent farms that do not exist in reality. This study develops a methodology to characterize and group dairy farms into different types according to the following basic variables: land use, size classes and production systems. The information used in this study was microdata from the 1999 Census of Agriculture. The methodology developed was also applied to microdata from the 1989 Census of Agriculture, thus obtaining significant information about the evolution of agricultural activity. The tools used in the analysis were Microsoft Access and Excel, and an application that was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic. The methodology presented can be used to analyse the evolution of the sector or to model future trends.