Exploring competitiveness of low input dairy farms across European regions with efficiency analysis

This paper explores the competitiveness of low input dairy farms. Efficiency scores and underlying key performance indicators are used to compare the performance of low input and conventional farms in Europe and to account for regional differences. Results show that low input dairy farms can be competitive with conventional ones, but regional differences exist. In order to be competitive, low input farms should transform their external inputs, land, labour and cows into milk revenues more technically efficiently compared to conventional farms, because they use inputs in a less cost minimizing proportion compared to conventional farms.