Technological Change and Productivity Growth in Livestock Systems: Denmark, New Zealand and Uruguay (1870–1970)

ABSTRACT

By the end of the nineteenth century, Denmark, New Zealand and Uruguay enjoyed a virtuous integration into the world economy as small, peripheral, export-oriented countries with natural aptitudes for producing and exporting agricultural goods, mainly from livestock rearing. Despite these similarities, the three countries experienced different trajectories in GDP per capita, the volume of exports, and agricultural productivity until 1970. This article aims to study the dynamics of technological change from a neo-Schumpeterian perspective in the livestock systems of the three countries and their impact on agricultural growth from 1870 to 1970. Land and livestock productivity indices are estimated to measure the performance of each country's livestock system. Results verify the existence of differences in the growth rates and levels of productivity of land, meat and dairy in the three countries. Diverse agents (government, academia and the productive sector) and their links were fundamental for adapting to a new technological paradigm and for promoting innovation processes related to land improvements in the livestock systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Livestock productivity
• technological trajectory
• agrarian systems of innovation

JEL CODES:

• N90
• O13
• O33

Acknowledgements

This article was presented at several conferences and workshops (Danish Society for Economic and Social History meeting, Aarhus, Denmark, 2021; VII Congreso Latinoamericano de Historia Económica, Lima, Perú, 2022; XIX World Economic History Congress, Paris, France, 2022). We are very thankful to the participants for their valuable comments and suggestions. We would like to extend our special thanks to Dr Gastón Diaz Steinberg for carefully reading the manuscript and providing feedback to improve the paper. Additionally, we would also like to express our gratitude to the SEHR reviewers for their insightful comments, which have significantly contributed to the improvement of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See Appendix C.

2 The report incorporates an estimate of the area of pasture and green forage destined only for grazing and feeding fresh forage. However, it warns readers that this estimate does not constitute the total area destined for this use, since grazing also occurs in areas where hay is recovered, silage activities are carried out and in fields grazed in autumn

3 See Appendix A for more details about the estimation.

4 The Livestock Unit is a technical coefficient commonly used in agricultural economics and statistics. It allows determining the animal load that a field can support in the winter months according to the energy requirements of each animal species. The indicator takes an animal species as a reference (cow or sheep), multiplying the livestock head by a weighting factor estimated based on each species' annual feed requirements. Conversion coefficients applied are available in Appendix B.

5 Equivalent meat is a homogeneous indicator of the physical productivity of livestock that covers the production of the main livestock items: beef, lamb, wool and milk. The indicator assumes a production cost of meat, wool and milk based on the fodder requirements of each animal species, which is synthesised by a transformation factor. Meat equivalent per hectare = kg beef/ha + kg lamb/ha + (kg wool/hax × transformation factor of 2,48) + (litres of milk/hax × transformation factor of 0,1).

6 See Lundvall et al. (2002) for more features about Danish NIS empirical studies.

7 In 1903 a faction of the Colorado Party led by José Battle y Ordoñez formed a government and remained in power for more than a decade (1903–1915). Their main political and social support was based on the middle classes and urban workers (Finch, 2005), and in this period they implemented a policy programme geared to widening the state’s orbit of action, competing with British capital in strategic areas of the economy and laying the foundations for a welfare state. (Barrán & Nahum, 1978).