Typology and physical–chemical characterization of bovine milk produced with different productions strategies

• Dairy production systems in the Brazilian southern region.
• Productive aspects to the physical–chemical attributes of the milk produced.
• Adoption of specific feeding strategies in different seasons.

In the tropics, milk production systems present high diversity and distinct ability to adapt to the demands of consumers and market conditions. Knowledge of the factors that affect the quality of milk and agglomerate of production systems into fewer groups can facilitate analysis and the decisions needed to improve them. The objective of this paper was to characterize, classify and analyze dairy production systems in the Brazilian southern region, and relate their productive aspects to the physical–chemical attributes of the milk produced. A multivariate analysis was conducted with 26 indicators obtained from a survey covering 328 dairy farms. Variance was fully explained by the first three principal factors. The first factor included feeding strategies, the second included the farm’s structure traits and the third included milk composition. Canonical analysis revealed distribution of farmers into three clusters. All feeding strategies, except salt supplementation, as well as monthly milk production, herd size, number of lactating cows in farm and unstable milk frequency were important discriminant variables to determinate cluster formation. The clusters were differentiated by feeding strategies used and the high standard deviation in some of these strategies demonstrated the adoption of specific strategies in different seasons. Cluster 3 had the largest monthly milk production and larger number of lactating cows, but the productivity of cows in the different clusters was not significantly different. The lower unstable milk frequency in cluster 3 is associated with more intensive use of silage, mineral-vitamin premix and commercial concentrate in the diet of animals. The physical–chemical composition of milk and the somatic cell count did not differ between clusters.