Productivity and technical efficiency of suckler beef production systems: trends for the period 1990 to 2012

Veysset, Patrick; Lherm, Michel; Roulenc, Marielle; Troquier, Christophe; Bébin, Didier

doi:10.1017/s1751731115002013

Cited by 34 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Beef producers face serious challenges in ensuring sustainable beef production. First, in many beef production systems, a large proportion of the feed is used by the cow breeding herd and forage feed self-sufficiency is a critical issue, especially with the added pressure from rising prices on cereal crops [1]. On the other hand, beef production contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emission of Beef Heifers in Relation with Growth and Feed Efficiency

Renand

Vinet

Decruyenaere

et al. 2019

Animals

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Simple Summary: For sustainable meat production, beef farmers must make the best use of grass and roughage while limiting the carbon footprint of their herds. The genetic improvement in feed efficiency and enteric methane production of replacement heifers is possible if the recorded phenotypes are available. Intuitively, the relationship between the two traits should be negative, i.e., favorable, since the energy lost with the methane is not available for heifer metabolism. The measurement of feed efficiency requires several weeks of feed intake recording. The enteric methane emission rate can also be recorded over several weeks. The two traits of 326 beef heifers from two experimental farms were measured simultaneously for 8 to 12 weeks. The correlations between roughage intake, daily gain, and methane were all positive. The enteric methane emission rate was positively related to body weight, daily gain, and dry matter intake. The relationship with feed efficiency was slightly positive, i.e., unfavorable. Therefore, the two traits should be recorded simultaneously to evidence low-emitting and efficient heifers. This study also showed that replacing the feed intake recording with the carbon dioxide emission rate appeared potentially beneficial for selecting these low-emitting and efficient heifers.Abstract: Reducing enteric methane production and improving the feed efficiency of heifers on roughage diets are important selection objectives for sustainable beef production. The objective of the current study was to assess the relationship between different methane production and feed efficiency criteria of beef heifers fed ad libitum roughage diets. A total of 326 Charolais heifers aged 22 months were controlled in two farms and fed either a grass silage (n = 252) or a natural meadow hay (n = 74) diet. Methane (CH 4 ) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission rates (g/day) were measured with GreenFeed systems. The dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), CH 4 and CO 2 were measured over 8 to 12 weeks. Positive correlations were observed among body weight, DMI, ADG, CH 4 and CO 2 . The residual feed intake (r wg DMI) was not related to CH 4 or residual methane (r wi CH 4 ). It was negatively correlated with methane yield (CH 4 /DMI): R p = −0.87 and −0.83. Residual gain (r w iADG) and ADG/DMI were weakly and positively related to residual methane (r wi CH 4 ): R p = 0.21 on average. The ratio ADG/CO 2 appeared to be a useful proxy of ADG/DMI (R p = 0.64 and 0.97) and CH 4 /CO 2 a proxy of methane yield (R p = 0.24 and 0.33) for selecting low-emitting and efficient heifers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emission of Beef Heifers in Relation with Growth and Feed Efficiency

Renand

Vinet

Decruyenaere

et al. 2019

Animals

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“…For example, Lherm et al (2015) demonstrate with an analysis of balance surplus that productivity gains declined over the period 1978-2014. Veysset et al (2015) show that technical efficiency, measured by the ratio of the value of output (excluding subsidies) to the value of intermediate consumption, decreased by 20% between 1990 and 2012 in the beef sector.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Productivity, technical efficiency and technological change in French agriculture during 2002-2015: a Färe-Primont index decomposition using group frontiers and meta-frontier

Dakpo

Desjeux²,

Jeanneaux

et al. 2018

Applied Economics

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The objective of the article is to assess productivity change in French agriculture during 2002-2015; namely, total factor productivity (TFP) change and its componentstechnological change and efficiency change. For this, we use the Färe-Primont index which verifies the multiplicatively completeness property and is also transitive, allowing for multi-temporal and -lateral comparisons. We investigate the extent of heterogeneity within each type of farming sub-sample in terms of TFP change, with the help of the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI). In addition, to compare the technologies among the five types of farming considered, we extend our analysis to the meta-frontier framework. Results indicate that during 2002-2015, all farms experienced TFP progress. The smallest average increase was experienced by the dairy farms and the largest by the field crop farms and the beef farms. The latter had the strongest technological progress but a deterioration in efficiency, while the opposite was found for field crop farms. The analysis of HHI reveals that sheep or goat farms are the most homogenous in terms of the direction of TFP change experienced over the period 2002-2015. The meta-frontier analysis shows that field crop farms' technology is the most productive of all the types of farming. KEYWORDS

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“…However, the structures, production systems and main evolutions observed over the last three decades occurred in comparable patterns (Veysset et al . ).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 97%

Three decades of productivity change in French beef production: a Färe‐Primont index decomposition

Dakpo

Jeanneaux

Latruffe³

et al. 2018

Aus J Agri & Res Econ

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The F€ are-Primont index is used to evaluate total factor productivity (TFP) change and its components for a sample of French suckler cow farms in grassland areas in 1985-2014. The results reveal an increase in TFP of 6.6 per cent over the whole observation period, with technological progress being the major source of productivity growth. Meanwhile, efficiency decreased. Farms experienced great technological progress from 1991 to 2000. From a methodological point of view, the comparison with results obtained with Malmquist indexes shows similar trends but different magnitudes, with the Malmquist index overestimating the TFP and technological changes compared to the F€ are-Primont index. In addition, the use of a sequential approach that restricts technological change to being positive or null allows for the precise calculation of technology changes, disregarding the effects of external conditions that are captured in efficiency changes. Finally, the estimation of full dimensional efficient facets (FDEFs) that guarantees the positivity of all shadow prices used to assess the mix efficiency component of TFP change is promising.

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Productivity and technical efficiency of suckler beef production systems: trends for the period 1990 to 2012

Cited by 34 publications

References 23 publications

Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emission of Beef Heifers in Relation with Growth and Feed Efficiency

Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emission of Beef Heifers in Relation with Growth and Feed Efficiency

Productivity, technical efficiency and technological change in French agriculture during 2002-2015: a Färe-Primont index decomposition using group frontiers and meta-frontier

Three decades of productivity change in French beef production: a Färe‐Primont index decomposition

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