ii Zusammenfassung und Abstract A fundamental link between the average cost of production (coverage) of the farms and the decline in dairy farms is not visible in the existing cost of production calculations. The phasing out or abandonment of (dairy) farms is determined by a variety of factors and does not depend solely on the economic success of milk production. At present, the legal and social demands on (dairy) farms are growing and cost increases can be expected. Whether the structural change continues as before or possibly accelerates can not be projected. However, there will cer- tainly continue to be a coexistence of large and small as well as specialised and diversified dairy farms, whose production costs and imputed factor costs show great heterogeneity.
