Globally Iran occupies the 4th rank in terms of sheep heads with 54 million [1]. Sheep fattening units have played a prominent role in the development of red meat and wool industry in Iranian animal husbandry sector. The present study aims to estimate technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of the sheep fattening units by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. Moreover, the effects of various socio-economic factors on levels of the efficiencies of the units were studied. By filling out 285 questionnaires at randomized two-stage cluster sampling and from interviews with the sheep fattener, necessary information was obtained from three regions (cold, temperate and warm) in Iran in 2006/7. The results of this research revealed that the average technical, allocative and economic efficiencies for sheep fattening units were 90.5%, 68.9% and 62.5% respectively. There is a considerable gap about 30-48% between the economic efficiency mean and the best efficient unit in regions of survey. Moreover, increasing of education levels, unit size, number of fattening per year and credits can improve efficiency of sheep fattening industries.
