Human resource management on dairy farms: Does investing in people matter?

As farm businesses grow larger, their organizational charts become more complex and typically deeeper, with middle managers being added. Human resource management practices, such as training, job descriptions, and standard operating procedures, may help employees become better, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the labor input and increasing profitability. We utilize Data Envelopment Analysis to test for differences in the efficiency with which several large dairy farms use their productive inputs to generate outputs, including profits. Our preliminary results show that there is no statistical differences in the efficiency scores between those who do use certain practices and those who do not. However, we recognize this as a first step and suggest that efforts be made to collect improved data for similar future analyses.