The objective of this work was to analyze the production costs and profitability of a bovine cattle production in dual-purpose production units in the municipality of Jamapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Productive, economic and technology use data were collected in nine farms or Livestock Production Units (UPP) The income (in Mexican pesos) of the UPPs comes from the sale of fresh milk, calves, cows for supply, cows for breeding stock, bulls, and fodder bales; not all farmers sell all these products, but the sale of milk and calves are the most important. Income per farm ranged from $66,060 to $1,157,538. For variable costs, items with the highest disbursement were: food (26.9%), health (32.45%), and fuel (27%). In fixed costs, the highest were: fixed labor (46%) and opportunity cost (39%). Average fixed costs accounted for 60.5% of total costs. Only three UPPs made a profit, UPP8 had the highest profit margin (25.93%), followed by UPP1 (14.82%) and UPP6 (4.26%). Three UPPs exceeded their breakeven point (average $423,025 ± 355,013) and two more were close. It is concluded that, because the regional market determines both the sale price and the costs of the main inputs, it is difficult to achieve significant reductions in production costs in the UPPs under study, but some farms did better than other because of a better decision-making process.