This article investigates the effect of precision livestock agriculture and, in particular, milk recording, on the productive efficiency of Irish dairy farms. We use a micropanel of farms that covers the period 2008–2017 and a dynamic stochastic frontier (DSF) model to account for the dependence of efficiency on past values. This allows us to distinguish between short‐ and long‐run effects of precision livestock agriculture practices on technical efficiency (TE). We provide evidence that the Irish dairy sector experienced fast productivity growth in the period covered by the data, which was achieved mostly through technical change (TC) and efficiency improvements, but not due to scale effects (SEs) at the farm level. Furthermore, our results show that precision livestock agriculture in the form of milk recording contributed to a more efficient use of resources. Specifically, use of milk recording is found to affect positively TE in both the short and long run. Finally, we provide policy implications and directions for future research.

This paper investigates the impact of the engagement of individual farmers with Farm Advisory Services (FAS) on total factor productivity (TFP) growth, as a relevant indicator of competitiveness under the vision of sustainable intensification. Using farm-level data from the Irish dairy sector between 2008 and 2017, we estimate a random-coefficients stochastic frontier model and construct a TFP growth index, extending Orea (2002) such that the contribution of FAS becomes an additional component of the index. The results indicate that the main driver of TFP growth was technical change and efficiency gains; a negative scale effect slowed down TFP growth, but this impact was counteracted by the positive contribution of FAS to productivity growth.