Hungarian dairy and beef production sector technical efficiency comparsion using DEA

To what extent veterinarians active in the dairy or beef sector follow the antimicrobial therapy guidelines made available in different European countries for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) outbreaks, and whether differences in therapeutic or preventive preferences for BRD management exist, is currently unknown. Therefore, the objectives of this cross-sectional study were to compare vaccination coverage and primary antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory treatment on dairy, beef and mixed-breed farms in northern Belgium, and determine their compliance with the recommendations made by the Belgian formulary. Information on antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory drug use and vaccination coverage from 190 BRD outbreaks in 180 herds, submitted by 101 veterinarians, was analysed. Multivariable linear probability models, adjusted for clustering at the veterinarian level, were used to determine differences between dairy and beef farms. Antimicrobials and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were used in 93.5% and 81.7% of the BRD outbreaks, respectively. First-line antimicrobials were used as primary treatment in only 42.3%, 50.9% and 38.6% of dairy, beef and mixed-breed farms, respectively. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed between dairy and beef farms in terms of use of long-acting macrolides (-17.2 percentage points [pp]; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -31.9, -2.5), steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (15.2 pp; CI: 0.5, 29.8) and vaccination coverage (bovine respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus type 3 [33.1 pp; Cl: 15.7-50.6] and Mannheimia haemolytica [23.1 pp; Cl: 3.4-39.8]). The herds that participated in this study were likely among the more motivated regarding BRD control. As such, the information on vaccination coverage is likely not entirely representative of herds in the study area. Interpretation is further complicated by the fact that vaccinated herds were potentially less likely to face a BRD outbreak and therefore participate in the current study. This study reveals differences in the primary use of (N)SAIDs, type of antimicrobials used and vaccination coverage on beef and dairy farms in the study region, and also differences in the appropriateness of antimicrobial selection based on the Belgian formulary.

Cow-calf systems represent a significant research area in animal husbandry, with differences depending on the final product (meat or milk). This study aimed to apply text mining and topic analysis on literature describing cow-calf systems in European, American, and Brazilian beef and dairy sectors between 1998 and 2023. Additionally, cow-calf contact (CCC) literature data was manually extracted. Our findings revealed the presence of 11 research areas among literature on cow-calf systems, with different priorities identified in the beef and dairy sectors. Beef industry mainly focused on animal proficiency and nutrition, while dairy on animal welfare and CCC, which showed a growing trend as emerging research topic, mostly in the EU. Current debates around calf welfare and EU's planned animal welfare legislation revision appeared to be driving the increasing interest in this topic. Studies in the beef sector were mainly localized in Brazil, showing that research in different contexts and species is important for CCC implementation. Manual data extraction showed considerable variation in the retained CCC documents regarding sample size, type of contact, methods and CCC duration. Learning about the varied CCC approaches used in beef and dairy farms in different locations, concentrating on their strengths and weaknesses, will help to develop novel solutions to global challenges. Adopting validated and robust indicators would help scientists and policymakers to monitor the system's quality. To improve CCC feasibility, match consumer demands, and move towards One Welfare and One Health, future research should focus on a variety of situations to overcome the current shortcomings.

Integrating dairy and beef production offers opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of beef production, which is dominated by emissions related to maintenance of the breeding cow. This study aims to quantify the GHG reduction potential of the New Zealand (NZ) beef sector when replacing beef breeding cows and their calves with dairy beef animals. To this end, we combined a cattle herd model of NZ beef and dairy production with GHG emission calculations of beef production. We computed GHG emissions (to farm-gate stage) of the current amount of beef produced, while increasing the number of dairy beef calves at the expense of the number of suckler-beef calves. GHG emissions were 29% lower per kg carcass weight for dairy beef animals compared to suckler-beef animals. The average emission intensity decreased from 21.3 to 16.7 kg CO2e per kg carcass weight (−22%) as the number of suckler-beef animals declined to zero and dairy beef animals increased. Integrating dairy and beef production would enable the NZ beef sector to reduce annual GHG emissions by nearly 2000 kt CO2e (i.e. 22% of the total sector's emissions), while the dairy sector would improve their social licence to operate by reducing the number of surplus dairy calves slaughtered from 4-days old.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Three manuscripts form the foundation of this dissertation exploring the impact of droughts on financial markets and the economy focusing on dairy, sheep and beef farming. The first manuscript exhibited in chapter 2 advances the knowledge by empirically examining the relationships between droughts and farms’ capital structure (measured in terms of real debt and equity) in New Zealand. Using microeconomic farm-level financial information accessible from the tax authorities, we evaluate how past droughts (measured by the New Zealand Pasture Growth Index) impact farms' capital structure. We demonstrate that impact of droughts on short-term and long-term debts, equity for dairy farms, and short-term debt for sheep and beef farms is positive and statistically significant. &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The second manuscript described in chapter 3 empirically tests the relationships between droughts (as measured by the New Zealand Pasture Growth Index-NZPGI) and banks' agricultural non-performing loans (NPLs) (loans overdue by 90 days or more) at the regional level. This estimation pools data from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA), the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), and Federated Farmers' farming surveys and tests the model using panel data fixed-effects regression modelling. Our results illustrate a statistically significant positive impact of droughts on dairy farming NPLs. However, we find no significant impact of droughts on sheep/beef farming NPLs.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The third manuscript stated in chapter 4 outlines the impact of droughts on dairy, sheep, and beef sector exports – measured in terms of both volume and value. This study produces estimates at the world, and income level, based on data from UN Comtrade, the World Bank, and a measure of droughts (the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index) of regularly exporting countries from 1995-2020. Findings suggest that droughts over the studied time significantly affected agricultural export quantities of dairy, sheep, and beef. We find that while high-income nations exhibit a greater decline in the export of beef and sheep both during and after droughts, medium-low-income countries show a greater reduction in the export of dairy products during droughts. We also find that the influence of droughts on export values is positive for the dairy sector while it is negative for the sheep sector.&lt;/p&gt;

Kenya boasts of having the best dairy sector in the region. The sector is the best performing in the agricultural sector, contributing 17% to the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) annually. It is dominated by small-scale farmers who account for the highest amounts of milk produced in the country especially in the Central and Rift Valley regions. These areas are most vigilant in dairy farming in Kenya and share ecological conditions and the same breed of animals, however, some areas produce the expected 20 litres per cow per day while others produce below that at about 5 litres per cow per day. Mukurweini sub-county in Nyeri County of Central region of Kenya is an area with intensive dairy farming but producing low amounts of milk, thus, the reason for selecting it for this study. Cross-sectional data on socio-economic factors and milk production in the past one month were collected from the 91 small-scale dairy farmers sampled in 2017, using semi-structured questionnaires. The study used the Stochastic Frontier model to analyze the technical, allocative and economic efficiency of milk production, while Tobit model was used to assess the factors associated with economic efficiency. The results indicated that the farmers had a mean of 68.7% in technical efficiency, 91.3% in allocative efficiency and 62.6% in economic efficiency. The results showed that the economic inefficiency among the farmers is mostly caused by low technical efficiency since the farmers indicated high levels of allocative efficiency. From the findings, there were considerable production inefficiencies and thus there was room for increasing productivity through the use of available inputs and reducing costs. Farmers having increasing returns to scale (IRS) showed that enhanced utilization of the available resources would yield a proportionate increase in the milk output. Increasing herd sizes, feeding animals with enough concentrates and ensuring the animals’ health care costs are met were found to be some of the solutions to the low milk v productivity among the small-scale farmers. At the same time, older farmers were found to be responsible for technical inefficiencies in milk production. The cost of concentrates and other feeds was found to be the major component of the total cost of dairy production. However, the allocative efficiency level among the farmers was quite high, an indication that the farmers in the study area, though resource-poor, were efficient at minimizing costs. The study indicated that age, household size, having dairy farming as the main source of income, hired labour and monthly cost of concentrates were the significant factors associated with economic efficiency among small-scale dairy farmers in Mukurweini. Price subsidies on dairy inputs, especially concentrates, as well as better milk prices, are some of the interventions that will see an increase in efficiency resulting in an increase in milk productivity.

In recent years, despite its hostile environment and harsh climate, the wilaya of Ghardaïa has emerged as a leader in dairy production in southern Algeria. This article sought to analyze how the innovation system in the dairy sector has, positively or negatively, influenced the development of the sector in this region and identify the socio-economic factors and institutions that have contributed to it. To do so, a functional-structural approach was taken. The data used were collected from semi-directive interviews and focus groups with different stakeholders involved in the dairy milk sector. Market restructuring, but also the collective organization, which is very common in the region, were found to be the main factors positively affecting the dairy sector. In addition, lobbying by the dairies and the asymmetry of power between dairy farmers and agri-food industrialists, a lack of collaboration and interaction between actors, a lack of coordination in knowledge development, and a lack of formal financing mechanisms to invest in livestock, turned out to be the factors hindering the innovation system. Finally, although the dairy sector in Ghardaïa attracts investors from the North of Algeria, and is thus a pronounced success in economic and organizational terms, the question of its sustainability is not being considered in these southern territories.

Concerns are growing over the impact of livestock farming on environment and public health. The livestock industry is faced with the double constraint of limiting its use of natural resources and antimicrobials while ensuring its economic sustainability. In this context, reliable methods are needed to evaluate the effect of the prevention of endemic animal diseases on the productivity of livestock production systems. In this study, an epidemiological and productivity model was used to link changes in Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) incidence with the productivity of the beef and dairy cattle sectors in France. Cattle production parameters significantly affected by BRD were selected through literature review. Previous field study results and national cattle performance estimates were used to infer growth performances, mortality rates and carcass quality in the cattle affected and not affected by BRD. A steady-state deterministic herd production model was used to predict the productivity of the dairy and beef sector and their defined compartments (breeding-fattening, feedlot young bulls, and feedlot veal) in case of BRD incidence reduction by 20%, 50% or 100%. Results suggested that BRD should be controlled at a priority in beef breeding farms as eradication of BRD in beef calves would increase the whole beef sector’s productivity by 4.7–5.5% while eradication in other production stages would result in lower productivity gain in their respective sectors. However, the analysis performed at compartment level showed that, in both the beef and dairy sector, young bull and veal feedlot enterprises derive more economic benefits from BRD eradication for their own compartment (increase in productivity of 8.7–12.8% for beef young bulls) than the breeding farms (increase in productivity of 5.1–6% for beef calves), which may limit the investments in BRD control.

The mobilisation and impact of roadway runoff on dairy farms has been established as a sub-component of the nutrient transfer continuum. It is acknowledged that fresh nutrient sources deposited on roadways dominate runoff and recent work has shown that available phosphorus (P) in roadway substrates is also an important source component. The objectives of this study were to understand spatial and temporal available P concentrations in roadway substrate (aggregate and soil mix) across dairy and beef farms during the open (February–October, when cows use the roadway network and fields) and closed (November–January, when cows were housed) periods and identify locations which could be considered critical source areas (CSA). For the study, roadway substrate samples were taken at 18 locations on each farm, across eight sampling periods, and were analysed for available P. Results showed that mean available P concentrations (Morgan’s P) in the sampling locations ranged from 15.9 to 101.4 mg L-1 for the Dairy Farm, from 4.1 to 59.4 mg L-1 for Beef Farm 1 and from 6.3 to 23.2 mg L-1 for Beef Farm 2. In open period, the results showed that mean available P concentrations were 75.4 ± 30.9, 14.9 ± 3.2 and 13.4 ± 2.5 mg L-1 for the Dairy Farm, Beef Farm 1 and Beef Farm 2, respectively. In closed period, the mean available P were 40.3 ± 17.2, 10.4 ± 1.0 and 9.8 ± 0.2 mg L-1 for Dairy Farm, Beef Farm 1 and Beef Farm 2, respectively. Overall, P concentrations on the Dairy Farm roadways was up to 4 times greater than that in the Beef Farms’ roadways. Compared to soils in adjacent fields, P concentrations in the Dairy and Beef Farms roadways was up-to 7 and 2 times higher, respectively. Critical roadway sections that required mitigation were two in the Dairy Farm, one in Beef Farm 1 and two in Beef Farm 2. In addition to fresh faeces and urine (i.e., dominant source of nutrients in farm roadways), this study showed that nutrient enriched roadway materials are a labile P source. Thus, future mitigation of roadway runoff must consider all roadway nutrient sources, including livestock fresh excreta as well as used roadway surface materials.

While the commercialization and diversification of agricultural and livestock systems have been identified as key global strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation, less is known as to the large-scale gendered impacts that are implicated in these transformations among smallholder crop and livestock farmers. This study explores these gender impacts across different farming systems and gender-respondent-household typologies using data from the Rural Household Multiple Indicator Survey (RHoMIS) in 2,859 households in three East African countries—Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Female control scores over incomes or foodstuffs produced through both on and off farm activities were highest in farming systems that had more land and more livestock. However, increasing commercialization—defined herein as the increasing importance of crop and livestock sales to farm households—resulted in an overall decline in female control across all farming systems and gender-respondent-household typologies. In contrast, crop and livestock diversification were positively associated with female control across gender-respondent-household typologies. Analysis of specific crops and livestock products across farming systems and respondent typologies revealed women have far greater control over decisions related to consumption than decisions related to sales, although the gap between the two were less pronounced in lesser-valued livestock products (chickens, eggs). However, the analyses suggest that as sale of crops and livestock increase, female control over these areas could likely diminish, regardless of specific activity. The authors conclude that approaches to adapt to or mitigate climate change that rely on increasing market orientation of smallholder production will likely intensify men's control over benefits from production, whereas diversification will likely have a more positive impact on female control. Thus, climate adaptation strategies promoting increased diversification will likely have a more positive impact on women smallholders than commercialization alone. The authors recommend that when commercialization is the target intervention, it must be accompanied by a gender differentiated analysis of trade-offs and risks to mitigate the potential negative consequences shown in this study.

Analyses of the costs of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from dairy production, which could be used to assess the effectiveness of alternative policy measures, is a missing link in the literature. This article addresses this gap by establishing the economic impact associated with a hypothetical greenhouse gas environmental regulatory regime across major dairy producing counties in the United States. In doing so, the article makes three important contributions to the literature. First, it develops a comprehensive pollution index based on Environmental Protection Agency methodologies, which contrasts with previous studies that rely on partial measures based only on surplus nitrogen stemming from the over‐application of fertilizer. Second, the article uses a directional output distance function, an approach that has not been employed previously to evaluate polluting technologies in the U.S. dairy sector. Third, the article incorporates a four‐way error approach that accounts for unobserved county heterogeneity, time‐invariant persistent technical efficiency, time‐varying transient technical efficiency, and a random error. The results indicate that regulating greenhouse gas emissions from dairy farming would induce a 5‐percentage point increase in average technical efficiency. In addition, the economic costs of implementing this hypothetical regulatory framework exhibit significant spatial variation across counties in the United States.

In Europe, cattle production is confronted with major challenges across all dimensions of sustainability, urging the need to promote environmentally friendly but also economically viable livestock systems. In addition, animal protein consumption greatly exceeds the dietary guidelines in most European countries. The protein transition, defined as the rebalancing between animal and alternative proteins in diets, is presented as a solution to mitigate the harmful effects of cattle production on the environment, but also as an opportunity to induce healthier diets. Yet, the implications of such a transition on current livestock farmers are still unclear. In this article, we investigate different factors associated with a protein transition (e.g., reduction of herd size, increased concentrate autonomy and increased share of pastures) and assess their implications for the economic performance of dairy and beef farmers in Wallonia, Belgium. In the dairy sector, we find that a reduction in herd size, a higher share of pastures and an increased concentrate autonomy are correlated with lower operating costs, resulting in higher margins. Therefore, a switch to more extensive grazing systems that rely on on-farm fodder production can entail economic benefits for farmers. In the beef sector, on the other hand, farm characteristics are uncorrelated with most economic indicators, but highly associated with subsidies. This suggests that changes in this sector will rather be induced by policy choices than by economic parameters.

This thesis aimed to investigate the technical efficiency conditions of dairy farming in the state of Minas Gerais, focusing on rural establishments that meet the criteria for family farming. Using data from public research and technical assistance programs in Minas Gerais, models based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the stochastic frontier production function approach were employed to calculate technical efficiency scores for 149 dairy farms located in 124 municipalities across the state. Additionally, financial, productive, and demographic data, both from the production systems and the farmers themselves, were analyzed using a Tobit regression to identify potential factors influencing the efficiency scores. The analysis revealed that most efficiency levels fell below the maximum threshold, though they were still within high or medium-high ranges. The results indicated that isolated expenditures on feed, capital, and labor were statistically significant in reducing efficiency. Additionally, expanding the farmed area also had a negative impact on efficiency. Conversely, an increase in production scale, represented by the actual quantity produced, ceteris paribus, led to higher technical efficiency in dairy farming. Furthermore, the estimation of the translog production function, based on the collected data, showed that the most important inputs for determining sector output were expenditures on feed, capital, and other operating costs. climatic factors such as air temperature and precipitation also played a significant role in shaping the production function. Overall, it became clear that family dairy farming in Minas Gerais has reached a mature level of technical efficiency, with producers performing as expected in a competitive environment. However, it is essential to recognize that rural development requires a broader perspective than that applied to other economic sectors. In other words, if the role of family dairy farming in economic development is primarily to achieve technical efficiency and profitability, this objective has largely been met. Finally, the study suggests that if a persistent crisis exists in the dairy sector, it must also be investigated in other links of the dairy production chain.

This study investigates the dairy sector in Slovenia, focusing on farm heterogeneity, efficiency in resource utilization, and policy implementations. Through a modeling approach, we explore the differences among dairy farms, considering factors such as herd size, farm management, natural conditions, and production potential. Based on 32 typical dairy farms, representing the entire dairy sector, composed of 6400 dairy farms, the analysis was performed using the farm model (SiTFarm). We emphasize the importance of accurate assessments, given the variability of policy impacts across farm types. While medium-to-large, specialized farms dominate milk production, smaller farms, particularly in less favored areas, hold social and environmental importance despite facing competitive challenges. Addressing environmental sustainability could involve promoting practices that improve milk yield and include grazing, as this tends to lower greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of milk (−5%). Dairy farms contribute about one-third of the generated revenue in Slovene agriculture, of which a good half goes to farms located in less favored areas. They manage a good quarter of permanent grassland in Slovenia, and it is certainly the sector that can achieve the highest return on these areas. In 75% of the farms, the gross margin is higher than 1756 EUR/ha and using best practices they exceed 3400 EUR/ha. The model results indicate that the average hourly rate on dairy farms during the observed period falls within the range of EUR 7.3 to 17.4 of gross margin for most farms, with the top-performing ones exceeding 24 EUR/h. However, due to the significant reliance on budgetary payments (on average, 58% of the gross margin), the implementation of the common agricultural policy strategic plan generally leads to a deterioration in the economic indicators of dairy farms. This impact is particularly pronounced on medium-sized and larger farms, increasing the effect on income due to the substantial fixed costs involved. Our findings underscore the interplay between policy interventions, farm characteristics, and sectoral outcomes, offering valuable insights for policy-makers and stakeholders.

Meta-analysis, as a powerful quantitative literature review method, has been widely utilized across various sectors. However, studies applying this approach to improve productivity and efficiency in dairy production remain relatively limited, particularly within the agricultural sector of Türkiye. To address this gap, this research examines the technical efficiency of the Turkish dairy sector using a meta-analysis approach. By the way, 28 farm level technical efficiency studies in dairy sector, published 2006-2020 period from different regions of Türkiye were selected and truncated regression method was used to determine the indicators affecting technical efficiency scores. Mean technical efficiency score was measured as 0.74 indicating that dairy farms had the opportunity to reduce the number of inputs by 26% without any change in the output. Thus, indicating that the environmental impacts of livestock activities, particularly greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and nitrous oxide, and land use pressures, could be significantly reduced. The model results revealed that research area, type of model, and the number of inputs and outputs were associated with higher levels of technical efficiency, whereas sample size and unit of output had no significant effect. These insights could guide policymakers and stakeholders in developing targeted strategies to enhance productivity and resource utilization in dairy sector. Encouraging further research and meta-analytical studies in agricultural sector would provide a more comprehensive understanding of efficiency dynamics and support evidence-based policy development.

A voluntary control programme for Johne’s disease, the Irish Johne’s Control Programme (IJCP) has been implemented in Ireland since 2017. The objective of this observational study was to assess Irish beef and dairy farmers’ Johne’s disease knowledge, implemented management practices and IJCP opinions. A questionnaire open to dairy and beef farmers was distributed via social media and email. In total 126 responses were used for this study; these responses came from mostly young farmers (18–25 years old) and represent a small proportion of the total number of dairy and beef farmers in Ireland whose average age is 55.Most respondents claimed to know what Johne’s disease was (73%; 92/126) and associated the disease to loss of body condition (68%; 78/114) and diarrhoea (59%; 67/114). Twenty-eight respondents (mostly dairy farmers; 22/28) reported positive cases in their premises. And 38% reported to implement management practices to prevent Johne’s disease transmission within or into their herd (i.e. management of milk for calf consumption and isolation of Johne’s test-positive or newly purchased stock; 47/124).Eighteen percent (22/125) of respondents were, at the time of questionnaire or previously, members of the IJCP. The main benefits reported by some of the participating farmers were identification of positive cases (29%; 4/14), and management of milk for calf consumption (21%; 3/14). While the main disadvantage was inaccurate testing methods (50%; 10/20). The main reasons reported for the lack of participation in the IJCP were not being aware of the programme (52%; 53/102) and not having a Johne’s disease problem on the farm (48%; 49/102).In conclusion, this study suggests that while young farmers are aware of Johne’s disease, their participation in the IJCP is limited and could benefit from further promotion. Studies representing the wider farming community in Ireland are warranted to gather non-biased input and contribute to Johne’s disease control in Ireland.