TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparing technical efficiency of farms with an automatic milking system and a conventional milking system
AU - Steeneveld, W.
AU - Tauer, L.W.
AU - Hogeveen, H.
AU - Oude Lansink, A.G.J.M.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Changing from a conventional milking system (CMS)
to an automatic milking system (AMS) necessitates a
new management approach and a corresponding change
in labor tasks. Together with labor savings, AMS farms
have been found to have higher capital costs, primarily
because of higher maintenance costs and depreciation.
Therefore, it is hypothesized that AMS farms differ
from CMS farms in capital:labor ratio and possibly their
technical efficiency, at least during a transition learning
period. The current study used actual farm accounting
data from dairy farms in the Netherlands with an AMS
and a CMS to investigate the empirical substitution of
capital for labor in the AMS farms and to determine
if the technical efficiency of the AMS farms differed
from the CMS farms. The technical efficiency estimates
were obtained with data envelopment analysis. The 63
AMS farms and the 337 CMS farms in the data set did
not differ in general farm characteristics such as the
number of cows, number of hectares, and the amount of
milk quota. Farms with AMS have significantly higher
capital costs (€12.71 per 100 kg of milk) than CMS
farms (€10.10 per 100 kg of milk). Total labor costs and
net outputs were not significantly different between
AMS and CMS farms. A clear substitution of capital
for labor with the adoption of an AMS could not be
observed. Although the AMS farms have a slightly
lower technical efficiency (0.76) than the CMS farms
(0.78), a significant difference in these estimates was
not observed. This indicates that the farms were not
different in their ability to use inputs (capital, labor,
cows, and land) to produce outputs (total farm revenues).
The technical efficiency of farms invested in an
AMS in 2008 or earlier was not different from the farms
invested in 2009 or 2010, indicating that a learning effect
during the transition period was not observed. The
results indicate that the economic performance of AMS
and CMS farms are similar. What these results show
is that other than higher capital costs, the use of AMS
rather than a CMS does not affect farm efficiency and
that the learning costs to use an AMS are not present
as measured by any fall in technical efficiency.
Key words: automatic milking , dairy , data envelopment
analysis , technical efficiency
AB - Changing from a conventional milking system (CMS)
to an automatic milking system (AMS) necessitates a
new management approach and a corresponding change
in labor tasks. Together with labor savings, AMS farms
have been found to have higher capital costs, primarily
because of higher maintenance costs and depreciation.
Therefore, it is hypothesized that AMS farms differ
from CMS farms in capital:labor ratio and possibly their
technical efficiency, at least during a transition learning
period. The current study used actual farm accounting
data from dairy farms in the Netherlands with an AMS
and a CMS to investigate the empirical substitution of
capital for labor in the AMS farms and to determine
if the technical efficiency of the AMS farms differed
from the CMS farms. The technical efficiency estimates
were obtained with data envelopment analysis. The 63
AMS farms and the 337 CMS farms in the data set did
not differ in general farm characteristics such as the
number of cows, number of hectares, and the amount of
milk quota. Farms with AMS have significantly higher
capital costs (€12.71 per 100 kg of milk) than CMS
farms (€10.10 per 100 kg of milk). Total labor costs and
net outputs were not significantly different between
AMS and CMS farms. A clear substitution of capital
for labor with the adoption of an AMS could not be
observed. Although the AMS farms have a slightly
lower technical efficiency (0.76) than the CMS farms
(0.78), a significant difference in these estimates was
not observed. This indicates that the farms were not
different in their ability to use inputs (capital, labor,
cows, and land) to produce outputs (total farm revenues).
The technical efficiency of farms invested in an
AMS in 2008 or earlier was not different from the farms
invested in 2009 or 2010, indicating that a learning effect
during the transition period was not observed. The
results indicate that the economic performance of AMS
and CMS farms are similar. What these results show
is that other than higher capital costs, the use of AMS
rather than a CMS does not affect farm efficiency and
that the learning costs to use an AMS are not present
as measured by any fall in technical efficiency.
Key words: automatic milking , dairy , data envelopment
analysis , technical efficiency
KW - nonparametric frontier models
U2 - 10.3168/jds.2012-5482
DO - 10.3168/jds.2012-5482
M3 - Article
VL - 95
SP - 7391
EP - 7398
JO - Journal of Dairy Science
JF - Journal of Dairy Science
SN - 0022-0302
IS - 12
ER -