Productivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations : technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorConradie, Beatrice
dc.contributor.authorPiesse, Jenifer
dc.coverage.spatialSouh Africa ; Western Cape ; Laingsburgen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-01T08:48:39Z
dc.date.available2014-10-01T08:48:39Z
dc.date.issued2014-08-05
dc.description.abstractData envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to benchmark extensive sheep operations in Laingsburg in the Central Karoo, South Africa, with data from the 2012 production season. An input oriented variable returns to scale frontier identified twelve efficient firms, and nine more that are technically efficient but not scale efficient. The top third’s overall efficiency score was 0.999. For the bottom third the average efficiency score was just 0.346, which indicates that there is substantial room for improvement amongst bottom third producers in this production system. Overall efficiency was correlated with stocking density, flock size, unit production cost and profitability, cumulative family experience of farming and the use of family labour, but not with farm size, breed choice or any proxy for individual experience or ability. Predation rates in particular were uncorrelated with productivity scores and reproductive performance was only weakly correlated with it. While most farms could theoretically improve their efficiency by intensifying their operations, a closer analysis of best practice firms revealed a spectrum of optimal intensities including the possibility of restoring rangelands by deliberate understocking. Grazing strategy and the degree of labour self-sufficiency emerged as the key determinants of optimal intensity.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationConradie, B., & Piesse, J. (2014). <i>Productivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations : technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africa</i> (CSSR Working Paper Series ; 344). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Survey Unit. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7878en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationConradie, Beatrice, and Jenifer Piesse <i>Productivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations : technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africa.</i> CSSR Working Paper Series ; 344. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Survey Unit, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7878en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationConradie, B. & J. Piesse. Productivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations: Technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africa. CSSR Working Paper No. 344. Cape Town: Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.isbn978-1-77011-331-2en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper AU - Conradie, Beatrice AU - Piesse, Jenifer AB - Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to benchmark extensive sheep operations in Laingsburg in the Central Karoo, South Africa, with data from the 2012 production season. An input oriented variable returns to scale frontier identified twelve efficient firms, and nine more that are technically efficient but not scale efficient. The top third’s overall efficiency score was 0.999. For the bottom third the average efficiency score was just 0.346, which indicates that there is substantial room for improvement amongst bottom third producers in this production system. Overall efficiency was correlated with stocking density, flock size, unit production cost and profitability, cumulative family experience of farming and the use of family labour, but not with farm size, breed choice or any proxy for individual experience or ability. Predation rates in particular were uncorrelated with productivity scores and reproductive performance was only weakly correlated with it. While most farms could theoretically improve their efficiency by intensifying their operations, a closer analysis of best practice firms revealed a spectrum of optimal intensities including the possibility of restoring rangelands by deliberate understocking. Grazing strategy and the degree of labour self-sufficiency emerged as the key determinants of optimal intensity. DA - 2014-08-05 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Data envelopment analysis KW - Extensive grazing areas KW - Farm-level productivity KW - Sheep LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2014 SM - 978-1-77011-331-2 T1 - Productivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations : technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africa TI - Productivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations : technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7878 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/7878
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationConradie B, Piesse J. Productivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations : technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africa. 2014 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7878en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentSocial Survey Uniten_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.relation.ispartofseriesCSSR Working Paper Series ; 344en_ZA
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectData envelopment analysisen_ZA
dc.subjectExtensive grazing areasen_ZA
dc.subjectFarm-level productivityen_ZA
dc.subjectSheepen_ZA
dc.titleProductivity benchmarking of free-range sheep operations : technical efficiency, correlates of productivity and dominant technology variants for Laingsburg, South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceWorking paperen_ZA
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