Since July 1, Embrapa Swine and Poultry has been making available free of charge two spreadsheet forms for estimating the production costs of pigs and broilers. These tools were developed specifically to generate estimates in panels with experts or focus groups.
The panel is a qualitative technique for collecting primary data. The method consists of a meeting, led by a research team, with a group of people. Its application to estimate agricultural costs requires the involvement of producers and professionals from public and private technical assistance and associations representing the different links in the production chains.
“The stakeholders involved in pig and broiler production have been asking Embrapa for tools to generate easy-to-use production cost estimates that employ appropriate methodologies to support the formulation of public policies and sectoral strategies. The spreadsheet forms for broilers and pigs meet this demand, allowing the organization of information gathered by a panel of experts and generating estimates of the costs of representative production systems based on the survey of technical coefficients and market prices,” says researcher Marcelo Miele, from the socioeconomics area of Embrapa Swine and Poultry.
The forms allow the estimation of costs for six production systems in pig farming (full-cycle pigs, weaned piglets, piglets up to the nursery stage and fattening of piglets in nurseries, pigs in finishing and pigs in weaning-finishing) and four production systems in poultry farming (conventional poultry house, air-conditioned with positive pressure, air-conditioned with negative pressure and dark house). They also allow the estimation of costs for three different regions with different production systems, as well as the calculation of the weighted average cost for the different regions and production systems characterized by the participants in the panel meeting.
The spreadsheets are available on the website of CIAS, Embrapa’s Poultry and Swine Intelligence Center, in the “Tools” section, at embrapa.br/suinos-e-aves/cias/ferramentas and are the result of a project in partnership with the Brazilian Association of Swine Breeders (ABCS) and state associations of swine farmers, which have provided support with financial resources, institutional coordination and a technical team. A technical communication was also published with guidelines on the use of the electronic spreadsheets, available at embrapa.br/busca-de-publicacoes/-/publicacao/1165256/planilha-eletronica-para-estimar-custos-de-suinos-e-frangos-de-corte-em-reunioes-de-painel.
Embrapa Swine and Poultry analyst Ari Jarbas Sandi points out that the proposed tools do not replace other simplified tools such as the “Easy Cost” application and the “Simplified Calculation of the Production Cost of Integrated Swine and Broiler Chickens” spreadsheet, which aim to assist integrated producers and technical assistance in managing farms and generating information to estimate production costs. “These tools continue to be available to this audience, while the new forms are more geared towards associations and institutions that wish to estimate costs for a region or state based on panel meetings with experts,” he says.