Economic and socio-environmental performance assessment of beef cattle production systems: a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach with weight restrictions

This study evaluated the performance of 21 beef cattle modal production systems that conduct only the raising phase. These production systems were developed in 21 municipalities in seven Brazilian states. We used two different DEA BCC models, corresponding to different points of view. Firstly we used an economic model that measured the ability of a production system to generate revenue with the preservation of native forest, using labor, capital, and current spending as inputs. The socio-environmental approach, corresponding to the second BCC model, uses the production factor labor as an output. In that model our interest was to assess whether the capital costs generate economic, environmental, and social benefits. Weight restrictions were imposed on the output variables of each model to explain the proposed viewpoints and to avoid inconsistent results. The results pointed out sources of inefficiency in terms of labor with low qualification, and use of bulls of questionable quality, factors that are common in extensive systems. These are some of the major bottlenecks in animal production systems as a whole.