Measuring the efficiency of industrial dairy cattle breeding farms using data envelopment analysis: A Case study in southern Tehran province, Iran

Recognition and measurements of technical and economic indicators is in the initial steps for rational decision-making and planning for the firms producing. Therefore according to the role of milk production and dairy cattle breeding industry in food security and also the role of Tehran province in animal husbandry sector, technical, allocative, economic and scale efficiency of dairy cattle farms in Pakdasht and Rey counties in southern of Tehran province has been investigated. For this purpose, efficiency of industrial dairy cattle breeding farms was evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Data and information for this research were collected by studying documents, observation and interview procedures. Results calculated efficiency, assumption variable returns to scale and based on input minimization, showed that half of the producers were technically efficient. Although about 51 percent of producers are technically full efficient but allocative and economic efficiency levels, they are not in appropriate status. Although the average level of technical efficiency was 0.93, but the average levels of allocative and economic efficiency were 0.45 and 0.42 respectively. Results showed that, about 40 percent of producers are scale full efficient. Assessing returns to scale results showed that 37 producers had increasing, 2 producers had decreasing and 26 producers had constant returns to scale. Inefficient producers have to decrease consumption of alfalfa, corn silage, concentrate, medicine and health care costs.