The Technical Efficiency of Specialised Milk Farms: A Regional View

Table 3

Distribution of the returns to scale.

Indicator	Inefficient regions	Efficient regions	Total	Average dairy cows (LU*)	Average ESU**
Number of regions with decreasing returns to scale	8	11	19	126.86	449.36
Number of regions with efficient returns to scale	0	20	20	55.52	165.94
Number of regions with increasing returns to scale	55	14	69	40.57	112.89
Total	63	45	108	58.52	181.91

Notes: ∗LU (livestock unit)-converting average number of animals to livestock units is done applying to this number a coefficient related to the category of animal. For example, 1 dairy cow is one LU. ∗∗ESU (economic size unit) = 1 ESU is 1000 EUR of standard output.