What is the cost of producing one liter of milk in Brazil? Any answer between R$ 0.10 and R$ 1.70 is true. But, also, it is not essentially true. This occurs for two major reasons, both resulting from a lack of standardization. The first reason is that there is an immense amount of production systems in Brazil, from the South to the North. Therefore, in Brazil, rural properties are not standardized, as in Europe, the USA, Canada and Oceania. Each farm is a farm. The second reason is that there is no standardization of methodology for surveying production costs. In this environment, any value for cost is true, but it is not true. It is with this vision that Embrapa Dairy Cattle began, in 2001, surveys of milk production costs, considering the methodology of the IFCN - International Farm Comparison Network. The objective was to gather information on production costs, which would allow comparisons on common basis and procedures. From this survey, it was possible to collect important indicators. Finally, the 1990s saw the search for efficiency as a hallmark, which caused the introduction of production and management technologies in a generalized way along the chain. However, at the end of the 1990s, the sector realized the need to get prepared to understand the rules of international relations and to invest in the generation of market information, as a mechanism to support decision making. The main goal of the project was to improve the Brazilian competitiveness of the dairy sector supported by studies and information about national and international dairy markets and better understanding about production systems at the farm level. Moreover, the project aimed to support Brazilian Dairy Industry and Government on international committees.