Objective.

The present study consisted in characterizing the dual-purpose cattle system and the factors that limit the productivity of this system in northern Sinaloa, Mexico.

Material and Methods.

We applied a survey to 214 producers and we analyzed the data with analyses of factors and conglomerate.

Results.

The analysis of factors identified five components: resources level, productivity, technological level, livestock management and socioeconomic aspects and these components explain 70.5% of the total cumulative variance. The conglomerate analysis identified three clusters: cluster 1 (52.5%, 105 producers) defined as a system focused on milk production. Cluster 2 (41.5%, 83 producers) defined as traditional farms of meat and milk production and Cluster 3 (6%; 12 producers) defined as farms focused on meat production. The three clusters present similar livestock management (p>0.05). The producers base their feeding strategies on grazing rangeland with seasonal supplementation of silage and commercial concentrate; however, each cluster differed (p<0.05) in the level of use of these resources.

Conclusion.

The present study identifies, in the dual-purpose cattle system in northern Sinaloa, low milk yield and limit forage resources as main problems that results in multiple strategies that the producers follow to solve it. The social aspects and the level of resources (land, animals, machinery and equipment and infrastructure) play an important role therefore they must be considered independently to help to define differentiated technological strategies.

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