摘要
This article investigates the effect of precision livestock agriculture and, in particular, milk recording, on the productive efficiency of Irish dairy farms. We use a micropanel of farms that covers the period 2008–2017 and a dynamic stochastic frontier (DSF) model to account for the dependence of efficiency on past values. This allows us to distinguish between short- and long-run effects of precision livestock agriculture practices on technical efficiency (TE). We provide evidence that the Irish dairy sector experienced fast productivity growth in the period covered by the data, which was achieved mostly through technical change (TC) and efficiency improvements, but not due to scale effects (SEs) at the farm level. Furthermore, our results show that precision livestock agriculture in the form of milk recording contributed to a more efficient use of resources. Specifically, use of milk recording is found to affect positively TE in both the short and long run. Finally, we provide policy implications and directions for future research.
摘要译文
本文调查了精密牲畜农业，尤其是牛奶记录对爱尔兰奶牛场的生产效率的影响。我们使用涵盖2008 - 2017年期间的农场的微植物和动态随机前沿（DSF）模型来说明效率对过去值的依赖性。这使我们能够区分精确牲畜农业实践对技术效率（TE）的短期和长期影响。我们提供的证据表明，爱尔兰乳业部门在数据所涵盖的时期经历了快速的生产率增长，这主要是通过技术变革（TC）和效率提高而实现的，但不是由于农场一级的规模效应（SES）而实现。此外，我们的结果表明，牛奶记录形式的精确牲畜农业有助于更有效地利用资源。具体而言，发现使用牛奶记录在短期和长期内都会影响积极的TE。最后，我们为未来的研究提供了政策影响和方向。
Iordanis Parikoglou[1];Grigorios Emvalomatis[2];Fiona Thorne[3]. Precision livestock agriculture and productive efficiency: The case of milk recording in Ireland[J]. Agricultural Economics, 2022,53(Sup1): 109-120