Application of Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis for Ranking Dairy Farms in the View of Energy Efficiency
Journal Title: Journal of Animal Production Advances - Year 2012, Vol 2, Issue 6
Abstract
Fuzzy data envelopment analysis (FDEA) model was used to solve the ranking problem of dairy farms for milk production in Iran with α-cut approach at eleven α-levels. It is widely accepted that measuring precise data for production systems cannot show the real situations; to overcome this shortage, fuzzy data envelopment is of great interest, especially in efficiency assessments which data errors are important. Different energy inputs including fossil fuels, electricity, machinery and equipment, human labour, feed and water were considered as input factors and energy output (including milk and cow manure) was the output parameter in determining the efficient units. The total energy consumption was 53.1 GJ cow-1 and the top two energy consuming inputs as feed intake and fossil fuel drew the fact that promoting input utilization efficiency seems critical. The benchmarking process indicated that 24 farmers from the 50 target dairy farms are efficient. Two units were known as sensitive units to fuzzy situation. Also, units were ranked according to their efficiency score. This study showed that FDEA can be quite useful for ranking purposes in agriculture using imprecise energy data.
Authors and Affiliations
P. Sefeedpari , SH. Rafiee , A. Akram , S. H. Mousavi-Avval
A Cross-Sectional Study on the Prevalence of Salmonella in Raw Milk in Tandojam and Surrounding Areas, Pakistan
The study on the isolation of Salmonella in raw milk marketed in Tandojam town was carried out and raw milk samples were collected from village Saleh Makrani, Tandojam city and Moosa Khatiyan. Eleven milk samples from Sa...
Modeling of Energy Output in Poultry for Egg Production Farms using Artificial Neural Networks
The present study aimed at firstly investigating the energy input-output pattern of some poultry for egg production farms and secondly the applicability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to model was presented. A face...
Characterization of the Mayo-Kebbi Sheep: a Previously Unrecognised Ovine Breed of the Agro-Pastoral Zone of South-West Chad
The characterisation is main activitie in order to identify important trait of ruminants. Information of phenotypic and morpho-biometric characteristics of the Mayo-Kebbi sheep is not available yet. The aim of the study...
Assessing the Thermo-Tolerance Potentials of Five Commercial Layer Chicken Genotypes Under Long- Term Heat Stress Environment as Measured by Their Performance Traits
This study was conducted to test the thermo-tolerance ability of five commercial chicken genotypes (Lohmann Brown, LB; Lohmann White, LW; New Hampshire, NH; White Leghorn selected for improved feed efficiency, WL-FE and...
Molecular Analysis of Ovine Calpastatin Gene in Six Iranian Sheep Breeds Using PCR-RFLP
The objective of the present study was to investigate genotype and allele frequencies of Calpastatin gene in six Iranian sheep breeds using PCR-RFLP technique. A total of 292 individuals (male and female) from six Irania...