AN APPLICATION OF CLUSTER ANALYSIS TO COMPARE SELECTED AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS IN THE KĄKOLEWNICA COMMUNE

The paper presents a comparison of nine agricultural holdings which are dairy farms located in the Kąkolewnica Commune. The analysis was based on results of a survey carried out in the years 2008–2010, and used to prepare a description of the holdings in terms of their area, cultivation structure, cattle stocking rate, economic size and profitability coefficients. The multidimensional cluster analysis was applied to make simultaneous comparisons of the holdings taking into accounts all the characteristics studied. It was found that the holdings could be divided into two groups. One group consisted of the farms with the greatest area, which were also similar to each other in terms of the variables studied. The second group was made up of holdings covering an average or small area, which were more or less different. In this group, holding 9 differed most from the remaining farms. The holding had a much greater area, a higher stocking rate of cattle and greater crop plant harvest volumes. However, these values were not great enough for the holding to be incorporated into the cluster of the holdings covering the greatest area.