Qual Quant (2012) 46:351–358 DOI 10.1007/s11135-010-9360-6 RESEARCH NOTE Productivity and efficiency scores of dairy farms: the case of Turkey Goksel Armagan · Suleyman Nizam Published online: 27 July 2010 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract A greater productivity level in milk production is the best answer to the increas- ing demand for this essential food. The main material of this study, which aims to determine the total factor productivity (TFP) and efficiency of dairy farms, consists of 100 surveys chosen from 1,429 registered farms of the Cattle Breeders Association of Aydin-Turkey by means of stratified sampling in May, 2006. The TFP decreases with farm size which shows that large farms fail to utilize their labour resource in full. In data envelopment analysis 15 farms work with an efficiency rate of 100%. The lowest efficiency rate was found to be 43%; the highest one was 100% and the mean rate was 79%. The efforts to improve efficiency levels should include participatory extension and coordinated research programs that aim to increase the productivity and efficiency levels of these small farms in the long run. Keywords Dairy farms · Efficiency · Total factor productivity · Farm scale · Turkey 1 Introduction Turkey, the largest candidate country compared to Croatia and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for European Union (EU) membership, is currently experiencing acute structural problems within its agriculture sector. Livestock farming in Turkey is generally a small- scale family farm activity, carried out in the vast majority of cases as a sideline activity by arable farmers. According to the 2001 provisional Agricultural Census results, 67% of all agricultural holdings were involved in mixed farming such as crop production and animal husbandry, while 2% were specialized exclusively in animal husbandry (SIS 2001). Natural conditions in Turkey are generally favorable for the raising of livestock, especially for grazing animals. However, natural and economic conditions have deteriorated due to the degradation G. Armagan (B ) · S. Nizam Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Adnan Menderes University, Aydin 09100, Turkey e-mail: garmagan@adu.edu.tr 123