Abstract: As the transformation and development of China's dairy industry still suffers from high raw milk costs and weak competitiveness of dairy products,improving the quality and efficiency of the dairy industry has been an issue of widespread concern for the government and society. Using dairy farming research data from 2018-2021 as well as official statistics,this paper compared and analyzed the cost components of dairy farming and the cost-benefit situation in China and the USA. The results showed that the kilogramme milk cost of dairy farming in China was significantly higher than that in the USA,but the gap was narrowing. The proportion of feed costs in the cost of dairy farming differs significantly between the two countries,with China accounting for an average of 67.1% and the USA 47.4%. China invested significantly less in mechanised and intelligent equipment than the USA,but the returns from dairy farming in the USA were significantly lower than those in China and had been in a loss-making position in recent years. Large-scale farms had obvious advantages in terms of costs and returns,and large-scale farms can give greater play to the economies of scale brought about by mechanical and intelligent equipment inputs. China should accelerate the development of a high-quality forage industry to fundamentally reduce dairy farming costs and improve farming returns. We should steadily improve the technology level of dairy development,increase investment in machinery and intelligent equipment,and promote the modernisation and high-quality development of the dairy industry.

Key words: farming costs, farming returns, dairy farming, feed composition, different sizes