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Operating Cost Efficiency on Pennsylvania Dairy Farms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

William Grisley
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
Juan Mascarenhas
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
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Abstract

Operating cost efficiency is evaluated on Pennsylvania dairy farms using a modification of the Farrell efficient unit isoquant frontier method. Evaluating farms by herd size groups, the average measure of cost efficiency ranged from 70 to 80 percent. Farms with larger herds were more homogeneous in efficiency than farms with smaller herds. Regression analysis was used to evaluate for differences in cost efficiency by herd size group.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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Footnotes

The authors express appreciation to I. M. Martinec for computational assistance and two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft.

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