Assessment and Optimization of Energy Consumption in Dairy Farm: Energy Efficiency

Energy is considered as an important production factor in many systems and therefore should bemanaged in parallel with other main production resources including land, labor and capital. in this paper, theenergy efficiency scores of some selected dairy farms, using the non-parametric data envelopment analysisapproach was assessed. the results for efficient farmers based on two dea models showed that with an energyconservation policy, farmers can perform better in stock farming. the total energy consumption was 72.8 gj/cowand the top two energy consuming inputs as feed intake and electricity drew the fact that promoting inpututilization efficiency seems critical. the mean technical efficiency score of 0.88 made this ample need moreapparent. machinery, electricity and feed were suggested as the main inputs for optimization due to their highcontribution in energy saving (46 and 36%, respectively). the least amount of estr (energy saving targetratio) for human labor indicated that it is employed efficiently. by practicing efficiently, dairy farmers arepotentially capable of reducing their energy consumption by 16.8%. in this study, adopting new methodologies,cutting the excess use of inputs such as feed stuffs through using standard feeding rations and providingconsultancy and extension programs are recommended.