This work was developed in family production units (UPFs), associated to a co-operative society, the Cooperativa dos Produtores de Leite de Santa Maria (COOPROL) RS. The goal was to identify the economical performance and the different systems of production used by the UPFs. The information was obtained from 53 farms, and among them the following production systems were identified: a) Milk associated to rice crops, with animal traction (AT) and an average of 30ha of tillable area (TA); b) Milk associated to rice crops with mechanical traction (MT) and TA=54ha; c) Milk associated to olericulture with AT and TA= 20ha; d) Milk associated to olericulture with MT and TA= 50ha; e) Milk associated to beef cattle with AT and TA= 40ha; f) Milk associated to beef cattle with AT and TA= 308ha; g) Milk associated to beef cattle with MT and TA= 80 ha; h) Milk with AT and TA= 20ha; i) Milk with MT and TA= 45ha. It was observed that the systems a, b, c, f, h and i showed an economic performance per worker labour unit (WLU) superior to the regional minimum wages, while the systems d, e, f presented a performance below the minimum wages.
family production unit; agriculture wages; family income
