The dairy activity in Brazil has undergone extensive changes. If, on the one hand, the industry tends more and more to value items associated with the quality of milk, such as fat, protein, total milk solids, etc., the prices paid or the incentives applied are arbitrary or defined based upon the financial return arising from one unit of the product. On the other hand, the dairy farmer does not know if the received incentive value, when it exists, is interesting from the point of view of returning the additional expenses necessary to produce milk in the quality required by the industry. Modern animal breeding has a business base, in which an organization makes investments in the measurement and genetic evaluation of the animal population, recovering the costs through the sale of breeders and genetic materials. Thus, the profit of the breeding company essentially depends on its program resulting in more profitable animals for the customers (i.e. the farmers) than other programs of competing companies. As farmers technicalize their activities, they begin to pay greater attention to the genetic material they need, so that advertising and marketing are no longer the only decision elements driving purchases. Therefore, the success of a genetic breeding company, whether public or private, depends on the correct evaluation of the economic objectives to be improved. In addition, the improvement in the economic efficiency of cattle production allows the offer of less expensive food, with lower prices reaching the consumers, thus benefiting society as a whole. The first step in a breeding program is the definition of its economic objectives. Since there are several characteristics that affect the economic efficiency, and the unit of selection being the individual (breeder or dairy cow), the artificial selection implies the weighting of the different traits that one wants to improve. In this way, the relative economic importance of live weight and milk production or composition in the selection of dual-purpose cattle can be evaluated. Despite the great importance of the subject, only recently the determination of the economic objectives of selection has received attention, both in the theory of this determination and in its practical evaluation. There is no record of evaluations of economic objectives of cattle selection in tropical countries, where the traits of interest may have different importance than in temperate countries. For the purpose of obtaining profit functions it is necessary to have detailed accounts of livestock farms. While conducting the project, 25 dairy properties varying in size, managerial practices or production systems were monitored. However, the vast majority of them presented information that did not make it possible to use the data in such a way as to estimate the economic weights or values for the desired trait. Economic values using the collected data and the payment system used by two companies of the dairy segment and for their combination were estimated. For milk production, the economic value for the companies one and two was the same, equivalent to R$ 0.968 relative to the current value of a liter of milk equal to R$ 2.20 and for the combination of the two companies, the economic value was R$ $1.012. The economic value for the production of fat in Kg was R$ 0.286 for company one, - R$ 21.95 for company two and R$ 1.54 for the combination of the two companies. The result indicates that company one offers some incentive to increase the fat content of milk, unlike company two. For protein production, in Kg, the economic values were, for company one R$ 22.66, for company two R$ 6.71 and for the combination of the two companies the estimated economic value was R$ 37.88. For the somatic cell score during the lactation, the economic values were very negative, equal to - R$297.13 and - R$279.02 for companies one and two, respectively, and -R$ 327.05 for the combination of two companies. Milk somatic cells counts are a highly exempted item by both companies. The conclusions of the work are that the traits that have a positive economic impact such as milk, fat and protein production and a negative impact as in the case of somatic cell counts should be considered as selection objectives in crossbred cattle breeding programs in Brazil, bringing real economic gains for the dairy farmer. Consequently, the positive economic values for milk production and its components indicate that selection for such traits would be profitable for the farmer. For the conditions of this work and within the parameters of payment for quality established for companies one and two, it is verified that the selection for higher protein production and low milk somatic cell count would imply a greater increase in the economic gain for the farmer and the industry, deserving great attention during the selection process by dairy farmers in Brazil. The team is grateful for the financial support received from CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and Fapemig (Minas Gerais Research Funding Foundation) in the conduction of this project.