This paper aims to estimate a translog stochastic frontier production function in the analysis of a balanced panel of 147 mixed Catalan farms in a five-year period (1989-1993), in order to attempt to measure and explain variation in output inefficiency scores with a one-stage approach. The mean output efficiency in the period analysed was estimated to be 62.3%. Using techniques for confidence i...

Brucellosis, a zoonotic disease particularly affecting goats, emerged in Thailand in 2003, resulting in both an occupational hazard for goat keepers and livestock officers, and production losses. Farm management practices have been identified as risk factors associated with Brucella sero-positivity in many studies. Our finding in this study should be considered in order to strengthen the system...

linear programming has been employed in many areas of constrained optimization including in agricultural planning for a long time. one of the most important disadvantages of such a method is that there is only one optimum solution for a given objective function and constraints set. another method named nearly optimal linear programming has been developed for solving the problem. this method can...

To make the right decisions, farm managers should have insight into the potential impact of management decisions on technical performance and economic results. In the Netherlands the (non-productive) rearing period of dairy heifers covers, on average, 26 months. Such a significant time lag between input and output makes it difficult for a dairy farmer to recognize the impact of various decision...

In Germany politics and consumers ask for the implementation of more animal welfare. So far there are no bio economic models available to calculate animal welfare measures on the farm management level. Experiments on animal welfare often result in limited data for farm management analysis. In this article the economic effects of measures for animal welfare using stochastic simulations are analy...

This study on farmers’ perception and management of natural hazards in production and security of farm investment was carried out in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. The study was sought to identify farmers’ perceived natural hazards in food production; identify adopted measures used in mitigating impacts of the hazards and determined factors that influenced farmers from...

A semi-Markov model and its application for designing and sizing swine facilities are presented. Swine production is becoming more and more specialised. Hence the sizing of a farm producing piglets is the main strategic decision of farmers who invest in sow production, since a farm comprises different facilities with different possible sizes. The classical approach is simple but the resulting d...

A stochastic distance function frontier was estimated using data from a national survey of organic farmers to evaluate the effect of farm-specific attributes on efficiency. Farm-specific and regional variables that shift efficiency were incorporated into the multioutput distance function, including organic farming experience, use of soil-improving inputs, and farmer involvement in research. Par...