Kvighotell : samarbete mellan mjölkproducent och rekryteringsuppfödare

Abstract: This master thesis is about the collaboration between the custom dairy heifer grower and thedairy producer.The custom dairy heifer grower is a rather unusual strategy of reproductive management inSweden compared to other countries like U.S. and Denmark where the specialization withindairy production gone much further. In these countries the research also has reached muchfurther within this type of industry. However in Sweden there has been research made in thearea of collaboration, but then only within collaborations in the industries of crop production,dairy production and pork meat.The down going trend of profitability within dairy production together with poor profitabilityin the beef industry could partly remedy if more collaborations around heifer contractingwould arise. But since the industry still is of a rare kind in Sweden the knowledge about howthese types of collaborative arrangements works and their contracts are put together is poor.By that the aim of this master thesis is formulated as follows: "how is usually thecollaborative arrangement between the dairy producer and custom dairy heifer growerdesigned". Beyond this main purpose the thesis also answers which the main motives are andthe pros and the cons of this type of collaborative arrangement.To answer the aim of this master thesis there has been a literature review made preferentiallyfrom U.S. studies together with a study made of contract theory applied on agriculturebusinesses. But the core of this thesis is the case studies interviews which are the main part ofthe empirical part of the thesis. The interviews were made with six custom heifer growers andfour dairy producers in Sweden. Also some template calculations were made as a part of theempirical part of the thesis to cast some light on the difference between different contractingtypes. The empirical part of the thesis was analyzed by the help of the literature review andthe contract theory.As follows a sample of the conclusions made in this master thesis. The most common type ofcontract among the studied cases was the buy/sell contract. A written contract should alwaysbe constituted in this type of collaborative arrangements. One of the most common motivesfor the heifer grower to be part in this type of collaborative arrangement is the possibility tolower the workload compared to the former dairy production. One of the most commonmotives for the dairy producer to take part in this kind of collaborative arrangement is thepossibility to increase the number of milking cows. And much more can be reed in theconclusion part around motives, pros and cons and the design of this type of collaborativearrangement.