<p><strong>Background.</strong> The dual-purpose production system is a major economic activity in rural areas due to the income generated from milk and meat sales. <strong>Objective</strong>. The aim was to conduct an economic analysis of three groups of dual-purpose production units.<strong> Methodology</strong>. The groups w: i. MIDP; with greater orientation to milk production; ii. TDP or traditional dual purpose and iii. MEDP that only produce meat. The information was obtained during 2015 by technical-economic assessment of 67 farms in the central highlands of Mexico. The partial budget methodology, and variance analysis (P&lt;0.05) for economic and management indicators with normal distribution and Kruscal Wallis test (P&lt;0.05) on the variables without normal distribution or expressed as a percentage were used. Also, a Student's t test was performed for the variables related to milk production only for MIDP and TDP groups. <strong>Results.</strong> Differences (P&lt;0.05) between groups were observed in the labor available and agricultural area, values that were greater in MIDP, as well as the forage area in meat DP group. It was observed that MIDP are PU of recent creation, medium size (24.50 ± 5.72 cows) and contract labor; the TDP are old PU with older farmers and medium size to (26.1 3.70 ± 3.70 cows) and, meat DP group are old and small PU (15.20 ± 2.52 cows), with young farmers and family labor. Equally differences (P&lt;0.05) between groups were observed in the total net margin for milk and cattle sales and in the unit net margin (ha and cow). In both cases, profits were greater in MIDP. <strong>Implications. </strong>The work contributed to the understanding of the dual-purpose livestock guidelines and their development based on the productive orientation<strong>. Conclusion.</strong> It concluded that milk production generates greatest economic profit and the activity it postulated as a development alternative, although number of PU is small and the traditional dual-purpose system is maintained in a stable economy activity. In counterpart, the meat production system presents greater economic instability and less development for the lowest profit margins.</p>