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The cattle dual-purpose production systems (SPDP) has been developed in the tropical areas, characterized by low levels of efficiency that require the analysis of the factors that affect it. In the present study, technical efficiency (ET) was analyzed in 271 production units located in Zulia State, Venezuela, using a stochastic frontier production function. The total income was used as output ($), and the surface (ha), animal units (UA), man work unit (UTH), and total costs ($) were used as input. An average technical efficiency value of 66.63% was obtained, with a range of 19.74 to 99.62, which indicates that there is a wide margin for improvement. In the inefficiency model, the variables stocking rate (UA/ha), and liters of milk per hectare (L/ha) were significant, the coefficient presented a positive sign for the stocking rate, which means that as it increases this parameter the exploitations increase their inefficiency, while for the L/ha the opposite happened. Based on these results, the need to determine the effect exerted by grazing management technologies on ET is raised, this would allow promoting management strategies that tend to optimize the use of forage resources, and thus achieve better levels of ET in the SPDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]