Assessing the effects of managerial and production practices on the efficiency of commercial pig farming

A non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique was applied to investigate the degree of technical and scale efficiency of commercial pig farming in Greece. Mean pure technical efficiency in a DEA model in which all variables were normalized with the number of sows was 0.83, indicating that there is ample potential for more efficient input utilisation in domestic pig farming. The normalized measurement of variables captures the fact that most scale-inefficient farms are operating under decreasing returns to scale. This implies that even smaller farms have expanded to a size larger than is optimal relative to the number of sows in their herds. In an attempt to explain variation in efficiency scores, the study focuses on certain managerial and breeding practices often not accounted for. Tobit analysis reveals that the choice of insemination method, origin of the genotype, and the feedstuff preparation system, as well as the mortality rate of piglets and the size class, have a significant impact on the efficiency level of pig farms. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.