2026/03/06 by Davoud Rostami, Abbas Pakdel, Ali Sadeghi-Sefidmazgi +3
Decision Sciences · Environmental Science · #Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact #Efficiency Analysis Using DEA #Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
paper · doi:10.1017/s002202992510191x
crossref issued 2026/03/06 · crossref published 2026/03/06 · crossref published-online 2026/03/06 · openalex publication_date 2026/03/06 · crossref created 2026/03/06 · openalex created_date 2026/03/07 · crossref published-print 2026/05/01 · crossref deposited 2026/06/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/12 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30
Abstract This study aimed to assess the productivity and profitability of Iranian Holstein dairy herds by utilizing technical-economic indices, particularly in light of fluctuations of milk and feed prices. The dataset comprised 2,890,994 test day records from 190,900 cows across 93 Holstein dairy herds in Isfahan province, covering agricultural years from 2016 to 2022. To evaluate the effects of production levels and lactation stages on investigated indices, a two-way ANOVA analysis using SAS software was used. The results revealed that the average daily milk income was US 9.37 ± 3.63 per cow, while the average of feed cost was 3.97 ± 1.70 per cow. The mean of income over feed cost (IOFC) was estimated at 5.40 ± 2.41, with a range from 1.12 to18.06. Notably, with an average income equal to feed cost (IEFC) of 16.8 kg, farmers need approximately 42% of their produced milk to cover feed costs. The results of this research indicated that only 1% of the milk-to-feed price ratio (MFPR) exceeded 3.0, suggesting that higher milk production at this level is indeed profitable. Additionally, the money-corrected milk (MCM) yield was found to be 1.5% higher than the standard milk yield. The IOFC exhibited a positive and relatively strong correlation with various factors: 0.92 with milk income, 0.75 with MCM, 0.55 with feed costs and 0.22 with IEFC. Furthermore, the production levels and lactation stages significantly impacted the measures studied ( P < 0.01). Interestingly, the second-parity cows with medium milk production emerged as the most profitable due to quality bonuses associated with higher milk prices. This highlights how increasing rewards and penalties related to milk quality provide incentives to farmers to focus on improving milk quality rather than merely increasing volume.