The results of a survey based on interviewing 1000 farm managers in Minas Gerais in 2005 (Table 1) illustrate the wide variation in farm size and management. Average land area for dairying was 57 ha, 86% of which was occupied with pastures (natural or cultivated) and the rest with sugar cane and elephant grass stands and to a lesser extent maize or sorghum silage. Seventy one percent of the capital invested corresponded to land. Most (94%) farms had electricity supply and 89% had a road allowing access of refrigerated milk trucks. Milk cooling tank is present in most farms except the smaller ones, which generally use a collective tank for several neighbouring farms. Machine milking was commonest in the largest farms