The scope of this research was to study the profitability of dairy business of milk production systems in Lavras region (MG). In addition, to identify the components which most influence the final costs of the business and the breakeven point. The data utilized came from 16 production systems, situated in Lavras region, collected monthly during the period of January 2002 to June 2003. The data processing as well as the profitability analysis were accomplished by the Custo Bovino Leite software. The analyses of costs and profitability were performed by taking into consideration gross margin, net margin and the result (profit or loss) as indicators of economic efficiency. The items component of the effective operational cost which most influenced the costs of dairy business were, in decreasing order, feeding, labor, different expenses, energy, health, milking, taxes and artificial insemination. In the economic analysis, for presenting positive net margin and negative result, it follows that milk farmers have conditions to produce in the middl-term; in the long-term, milk farmers have been decapitalizing.
Profitability analysis; dairy cattle; production cost; breakeven point