Evaluating environmental effects of adopting automatic milking systems on Norwegian dairy farms

Abstract

We present a novel procedure based on eco-efficiency for assessing farm-level effects of technology adoption while considering secondary effects. Secondary effects are defined as structural and behavioural adaptations to technology that may impact environmental, social or economic outcomes. We apply the procedure to automatic milking systems (AMS) in Norway and find that AMS induces secondary effects, most strongly by decreasing labour per cow and increasing herd sizes. For estimating effects of AMS we employ a novel causal machine learning approach. AMS induce heterogenous effects on eco-efficiency, negatively associated with herd expansion and labour per cow.

Keywords

eco-efficiency; automatic milking robots; Norway; agricultural innovations

Published in

European Review of Agricultural Economics
2024, volume: 51, number: 1, pages: 128-156

SLU Authors

• Martinsson, Elin

  • University of Bonn

• Hansson, Helena

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Business Administration
Agricultural Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbad041

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/127388