Efficiency and profitability in pork production

Under prevailing production restrictions the profitability of agricultural production increasingly depends not only on prices of products and inputs, but on how effectively and economically the existing capacity and animal breeds are utilized on farms. The technical efficiency of pork production in...

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Main Author: Olli Rantala
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Scientific Agricultural Society of Finland 1986-01-01
Series:Agricultural and Food Science
Online Access:https://journal.fi/afs/article/view/72216
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spelling doaj-cab43b1a5f0c4dd1b97029a308498c502020-11-24T21:34:00ZengScientific Agricultural Society of FinlandAgricultural and Food Science1459-60671795-18951986-01-01581Efficiency and profitability in pork production Olli Rantala0Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Helsinki, SF-00710 HELSINKI 71 Under prevailing production restrictions the profitability of agricultural production increasingly depends not only on prices of products and inputs, but on how effectively and economically the existing capacity and animal breeds are utilized on farms. The technical efficiency of pork production in Finland is generally high. The average feed conversion rate on farms is only about 16 % lower and daily liveweight gain 20 % less than results from experimental stations. Variation between farms is, however, considerable. The means of technical results between the best and poorest farms differ by 20—30 %. Results also tend to deteriorate and relative deviations increase, especially in large piggeries. The average gross margin percentage was 12 %. Variation in the gross margin per pig was wider between farms than between years. The feed conversion efficiency proved to be the most significant factor contributing to profitability in pork production. Variation in the feed conversion rate accounted for 30 % of total variation in the gross margin. Cost variation was one third larger than the variation of total receipts per pig. The cost of feed varied twice as much as piglet cost. Since the genetic quality of animals in a given region is rather even, variations in productivity depend upon internal factors of piggeries. The large variation in efficiency and profitability over farms emphasizes the human factor i.e. the role of the farmer as the most important factor contributing to successful production.https://journal.fi/afs/article/view/72216
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Olli Rantala
spellingShingle Olli Rantala
Efficiency and profitability in pork production
Agricultural and Food Science
author_facet Olli Rantala
author_sort Olli Rantala
title Efficiency and profitability in pork production
title_short Efficiency and profitability in pork production
title_full Efficiency and profitability in pork production
title_fullStr Efficiency and profitability in pork production
title_full_unstemmed Efficiency and profitability in pork production
title_sort efficiency and profitability in pork production
publisher Scientific Agricultural Society of Finland
series Agricultural and Food Science
issn 1459-6067
1795-1895
publishDate 1986-01-01
description Under prevailing production restrictions the profitability of agricultural production increasingly depends not only on prices of products and inputs, but on how effectively and economically the existing capacity and animal breeds are utilized on farms. The technical efficiency of pork production in Finland is generally high. The average feed conversion rate on farms is only about 16 % lower and daily liveweight gain 20 % less than results from experimental stations. Variation between farms is, however, considerable. The means of technical results between the best and poorest farms differ by 20—30 %. Results also tend to deteriorate and relative deviations increase, especially in large piggeries. The average gross margin percentage was 12 %. Variation in the gross margin per pig was wider between farms than between years. The feed conversion efficiency proved to be the most significant factor contributing to profitability in pork production. Variation in the feed conversion rate accounted for 30 % of total variation in the gross margin. Cost variation was one third larger than the variation of total receipts per pig. The cost of feed varied twice as much as piglet cost. Since the genetic quality of animals in a given region is rather even, variations in productivity depend upon internal factors of piggeries. The large variation in efficiency and profitability over farms emphasizes the human factor i.e. the role of the farmer as the most important factor contributing to successful production.
url https://journal.fi/afs/article/view/72216
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