Effektiv mjölkproduktion : en fallstudie av effektiviteten i svenska, tyska och nederländska mjölkproducerande företag, samt en kartläggning av effektivitetspåverkande faktorer

Abstract: In a time when milk producing farm businesses face decline in profitability it is of great importance to examine how the situation can be improved. This thesis is a study off efficiency in milk producing farm businesses represented by Swedish, Dutch and German farms. The aim of this study is to investigate whether any differences exist between companies in these countries. Moreover, the study includes a mapping of a number of factors that determine how efficient milk production can be managed. This mapping is based on a literature review on prior efficiency studies followed by qualitative interviews with milk production advisors as well as a questionnaire sent out to dairy farmers in Sweden. The method used is a case study, motivated by the fact that the efficiency study just includes 58 milk producing farms. Because of this, conclusions regarding efficiency in milk production can not be generalized among the studied countries. The results show that no significant differences in efficiency can be found between dairy farms from the different countries. Furthermore, the efficiency seems to be dependent on the farmers’ individual capacity to use the available technique. The results imply that most milk producing farms seem to be able to improve efficiency by methods that include taking advantage of existing conditions and making precise adjustments in the production.