Supply chain management practices in dairy farms: the case of izmir and manisa

The main purpose of the research is to examine the possibilities of increasing the efficiency of dairy farms by applying the practices of supply chain management. For this purpose, feed supplier and milk buyer preferences of producers were determined, production was planned, dairy farm efficiency was determined, and the ideal supply chain of dairy farm was put forward. Face-to-face surveys were conducted with 117 producers in Odemis district of Izmir province and 30 producers in Salihli district of Manisa province in the scope of the research. In this study, Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to determine supplier and buyer preferences of the producers, Linear Programming was used in production planning, and Data Envelopment Analysis method was used to determine efficiencies of dairy farms. Dairy farms were classified into four groups as 5-15 head of cows, 16-25 head of cows, 26-40 head of cows, and 41 and above head of cows in the analysis of the data. Accordingly, there were 32 dairy farms in the first group, 46 dairy farms in the second group, 36 dairy farms in the third group, and 33 dairy farms in the fourth group. The results of the research show that the producers attach particular importance to feed quality. In this respect, dairies are the most suitable feed suppliers. It was determined that the purchase amount of the milk buyer is the most important criterion in milk sales, and the milk should be sold to the cooperative, which is the best alternative in terms of price, payment period and purchase amount. As a result of production planning, it was determined that the number of dairy farms with full efficiency and technical efficiency value increased. The proposed model shows that supply chain management practices can improve the efficiency of dairy farms. In addition, it was determined that there are some problems such as high input costs, the low level of cooperation, lack of capital, animal diseases, calf deaths, poor barn conditions, breeding problems due to repeat breeder in dairy cows, lack of modern equipment, and inability to employ skilled workers. The results show that the current conditions are not suitable for sustainable dairy farming, and there is a need for innovations in dairy farming. Keywords: Dairy farms, supply chain management, analytical hierarchy process, linear programming, data envelopment analysis.