The objective of this research was to estimate reference zootechnical and economic performance indices, evaluate the influence of different types of labor on the technical and economic results and identify the components that had greater representativeness on the total and effective operational cost of dairy farms. We analyzed 38 size, zootechnical, and economic indicators of 61 milk production systems, grouped according to the type of labor. The data were collected during January 2002 to December 2011 period. The results were compared by ANOVA test (normal distribution), complemented by LSD test, and Kruskal-Wallis test (non-normal distribution), also complemented by LSD test. Reference performance indices should be considered, taking into account the factors that are common to dairy farms. The type of labor does not seem to determine the economic efficiency of the dairy production system. The items of total and effective operational cost that had greater representativeness were, in descending order, feeding and labor to hired and mixed labor groups, and feeding and various expenses to family labor.
benchmarks; dairy cattle; human resources; profitability analysis; technical efficiency