Despite the ongoing trend of higher intensities in dairy farming, some farmers select rather low-input systems. We identify such system in an agricultural bookkeeping dataset and assess economic effects of this system selection under volatile prices situations using cluster analysis and direct covariates matching. We find one lowinput cluster with low levels of input use and three clusters with rather higher input levels. Those clusters differ in site conditions, farm size and milk production. After applying the matching methodology, the results indicate that choosing a low-input system does not affect farm income but reduces the work load and borrowed capital even under volatile markets.