Evaluation with clustering analysis of milk production in small ruminants in the East Black Sea Region

In this study, the efficiency of using cluster analysis in data obtained from small ruminants was being tested. The aim of the study was to test the effectiveness of cluster analysis using milk production data obtained from small ruminants in the Eastern Black Sea Region. The study aims to determine the production differences between the provinces and years in the region by examining the milk production data of small ruminants between the years 2004-2019. The provinces and years with the highest milk production efficiency were determined in the provinces determined by cluster analysis. The small ruminant milk production data used in the study conducted for the Eastern Black Sea Region were obtained from the records kept by TURKSTAT between the years 2004-2019. Due to lack of data, the years before and after these years could not be included in the study. According to the cluster analysis results, it was determined that the highest sheep and goat milk production was produced in the provinces of Ordu, Trabzon and Artvin in the first subcluster of the first main cluster, and then in the province of Giresun in the second subcluster. When examined by years, the highest sheep milk production was obtained in 2019 in the first sub-cluster of the second main cluster, followed by 2017 and 2018 in the second sub-cluster. It was observed that the highest yield in goat milk production belonged to the years 2018 and 2019 in the second main cluster.