The effect of operational managerial practices on economic, technical and allocative efficiency at Swedish dairy farms

Hansson, Helena; Öhlmér, Bo

doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2008.01.013

Cited by 59 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Hansson 2007, Hansson 2008, Hansson and Ohlmer 2008, and thus the findings cannot be directly generalized to other agricultural production types. Cost-effectiveness has been emphasized as an important aspect for obtaining higher comparative advantages in Swedish beef production (Kumm and Larsson 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Input saving possibilities and practices contributing to more efficient beef production in Sweden

Manevska‐Tasevska

Hansson

Rabinowicz

2014

AFSci

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This study estimated the possibilities of reducing costs and improving input use in a sample of Swedish farms specialising in beef production. Input use efficiency was measured in a multi-output, multi-input distance function analysis, covering the period 2008-2011. For comparison, both the classical radial and the generalised non-parametric approach were used. The results revealed that on average, costs could be decreased by 20%. Both models constructed frontiers where: i) the rankings of farms according to efficiency were positively and highly correlated and ii) the size and the significance of the parameter estimates were similar. Input-saving technologies were found to be positively influenced by livestock density, pasture availability and the use of coupled income support. Larger farms, farms with higher specialisation in beef cattle, farms with a larger number of animals older than 2 years, farms converting to organic production, farms located in less favoured areas and farms located in regions with a shorter grazing period were found be less efficient.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Input saving possibilities and practices contributing to more efficient beef production in Sweden

Manevska‐Tasevska

Hansson

Rabinowicz

2014

AFSci

Self Cite

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“…Therefore, there may be a number of hidden confounding factors. Management factors, like feeding strategies, breeding (Hansson and Öhlmér, 2008;Hogeveen et al, 2011). Other diseases may have interacted (Lawson et al, 2004), because farms with a high exposure to GI nematodes may be more prone to other diseases as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relation between input-output transformation and gastrointestinal nematode infections on dairy farms

Voort¹,

Meensel²,

Lauwers

et al. 2016

animal

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Efficiency analysis is used for assessing links between technical efficiency (TE) of livestock farms and animal diseases. However, previous studies often do not make the link with the allocation of inputs and mainly present average effects that ignore the often huge differences among farms. In this paper, we studied the relationship between exposure to gastrointestinal (GI) nematode infections, the TE and the input allocation on dairy farms. Although the traditional cost allocative efficiency (CAE) indicator adequately measures how a given input allocation differs from the cost-minimising input allocation, they do not represent the unique input allocation of farms. Similar CAE scores may be obtained for farms with different input allocations. Therefore, we propose an adjusted allocative efficiency index (AAEI) to measure the unique input allocation of farms. Combining this AAEI with the TE score allows determining the unique input-output position of each farm. The method is illustrated by estimating efficiency scores using data envelopment analysis (DEA) on a sample of 152 dairy farms in Flanders for which both accountancy and parasitic monitoring data were available. Three groups of farms with a different input-output position can be distinguished based on cluster analysis: (1) technically inefficient farms, with a relatively low use of concentrates per 100 l milk and a high exposure to infection, (2) farms with an intermediate TE, relatively high use of concentrates per 100 l milk and a low exposure to infection, (3) farms with the highest TE, relatively low roughage use per 100 l milk and a relatively high exposure to infection. Correlation analysis indicates for each group how the level of exposure to GI nematodes is associated or not with improved economic performance. The results suggest that improving both the economic performance and exposure to infection seems only of interest for highly TE farms. The findings indicate that current farm recommendations regarding GI nematode infections could be improved by also accounting for the allocation of inputs on the farm.Keywords: data envelopment analysis, cluster analysis, Ostertagia ostertagi, input allocation, technical efficiency ImplicationThis study relates efficiency of inputs used to produce milk on dairy farms with the exposure to gastrointestinal nematodes. A new measure was developed to identify the farm's unique allocation of inputs. Together with the technical efficiency (TE) score, this allowed to cluster farms on their unique input-output position. We found that the relation between the level of exposure to infection, input allocation, TE and the economic farm performance was specific for the different clusters. This emphasises the importance of considering farm specificity in input-output transformation when assessing the farm economic performance in relation to infection.

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“…However, absolute comparisons between the average efficiency scores obtained in different studies should be restrictive because efficiency scores are sensitive to the method used for estimation, the number of variables in the specification of the production technology and the number of observations in the sample (Coelli et al, 2005). Comparisons between the average efficiency scores obtained in different studies provide information about the homogeneity of the sample (Hansson and Ö hlmé r, 2008); a high average efficiency score signals a homogeneous sample where the difference between the best-practice farms and the rest of the farms is small. Consequently, in this study, the sample analysed was more heterogeneous than the samples analysed in other studies.…”

Section: Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A dairy farm's technical efficiency is a measure of the farmer's ability to use production inputs as intensively as possible, and is a necessary condition for profitable farms. During the last few years, several studies (Lawson et al, 2004;Stokes et al, 2007;Hansson and Ö hlmé r, 2008) on dairy farms' technical efficiency present unequivocal results: average performing farms could become more efficient by adjusting to the practices used by the most efficient, best-practice farms. Thus, farms can reduce their use of production inputs and consequently reduce their current production costs, leading to more profitable and long-term sustainable farms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Which preventive measures against mastitis can increase the technical efficiency of dairy farms?

Hansson

Szczensa-Rundberg

Nielsen

2011

Animal

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The aim of this paper was to explore if, and in that case how, various preventive measures against mastitis influenced the whole-farm economic outcome, measured as technical efficiency, of a sample of specialised dairy farms in Sweden. In particular, the paper aimed at analysing whether a change to preventive measures applied by fully efficient farms would be a way for inefficient farms to become fully efficient. First, technical efficiency was assessed for each farm in the sample based on farm-level accounting data and the data envelopment analysis. In a second step, the effects of preventive measures against mastitis (collected through a mail questionnaire) on technical efficiency were assessed with logistic regression. Keeping cows in a loose-housing barn, stimulating udders manually during milking, and having cows standing on clean bedding during milking were found to significantly increase the probability of a farm being fully efficient. Once the farmer considers the somatic cell count (SCC) to be too high, undertaking measures such as contacting a veterinarian, checking overall hygiene routines, and culling cows with high SCC were found to significantly increase the probability of a farm being fully efficient. Thus, these measures may be plausible targets for advisory services aimed at assisting farmers to become fully efficient, especially if they are confirmed in future studies. Several common preventive measures against mastitis, that is, choice of bedding material, frequency of cleaning stalls, pre-milking, post-milking teat disinfection, applying a milking order based on the SCC of cows, and milking high-SCC cows with a separate cluster, were found to have no statistically significant effect on farm economic outcome. However, these measures may still be valuable for non-economic goals, such as increased animal welfare, and the results imply that they can be implemented without negative impact on the economic performance of the farm.

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The effect of operational managerial practices on economic, technical and allocative efficiency at Swedish dairy farms

Cited by 59 publications

References 22 publications

Input saving possibilities and practices contributing to more efficient beef production in Sweden

Input saving possibilities and practices contributing to more efficient beef production in Sweden

The relation between input-output transformation and gastrointestinal nematode infections on dairy farms

Which preventive measures against mastitis can increase the technical efficiency of dairy farms?

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