Agriculture

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Agriculture

• Commercial Farming

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Commercial Farming

• Definition
• Commercial farmers produce their crops to sell
  them in the marketplace
• Commercial farming types include mixed crop and
  livestock farming, ranching, dairying, and
  large-scale grain production

• Plantation farming is a form of commercial
  farming
• Mainly practiced in less developed countries

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Commercial Farming

• Mixed Crop and Livestock farming
• Definition
• Involves a farm that grows crops and raises
  animals
• Most crops grown on mixed farms are used to feed
  the farms animals
• Provides manure fertilizer for sale as well as
  goods

• Most of mixed farms income comes from sale of
  its animal products
• Reduces farmers dependence on seasonal crops
• Devotes nearly all land to crops but 3/4ths of
  income comes from sale of animal products
• Exists widely throughout Europe and Eastern
  Northern America
• Usually farms are near large, urban areas
• Most mixed farms practice crop rotation

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Ranching

• Definition
• Commercial grazing, or the raising of animals on
  a plot of land on which they graze
• Ranching is usually extensive
• Cattle and sheep are most common animals on
  ranches

• Practiced in areas where the climate is too dry
  to support crops
• Semi-arid, arid land
• Western U.S, Argentina, southern Brazil, and
  Uruguay
• In U.S. part of pop culture
• Also on coast of Latin America and Northern
  Mexico
• Declining in importance
• Began declining in U.S. in 1880s
• Partly because of low grain prices and because of
  U.S. meat quality standards
• Many U.S. ranches are being converted into
  fattening farms

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Dairying

• Definition
• Growth of milk-based products for the marketplace
• Dairy farms closest to the marketplace usually
  produce the most perishable, fluid-milk products
• while those father away produce goods such as
  cheese and butter

• Most economically productive type of commercial
  agriculture
• practiced near cities in the northeastern U.S,
  southeastern Canada, and northwestern Europe

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Dairying

• Dairy Farms usually very small and capital
  intensive
• Uses a lot of machinery in the farming process
• Labor-intensive uses more human labor
• The milkshed is the zone around the citys center
  in which milk can be produced and shipped to the
  marketplace without spoiling

• Growth in transportation technology has increased
  area of the milkshed
• Improved technology and feeding systems have led
  to increases in the amount of milk produced per
  cow

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Large-Scale Grain Production

• Definition
• Where the grains are most often grown to be
  exported to other places for consumption
• Wheat is the dominant grain on large-scale grain
  farms
• Worlds largest export crop
• Common in Canada, U.S., Argentina, Australia,
  France, England, and the Ukraine
• U.S. largest grain producer

• Within North America, large-scale grain
  production is concentrated within three areas
• Winter-wheat belt
• Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma
• Spring-wheat belt
• Dakotas, Montana, Southern Saskatchewan Canada
• Palouse region
• Washington State

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Large-scale Grain Production

• Large-scale grain farms grew during Industrial
  Revolution
• Farms are usually highly mechanized,
  capital-intensive operations
• Several technological innovations precipitated
  the growth of large-scale grain farming
• McCormick Reaper 1830s
• Cuts standing grain in the field
• Combine Machine
• Completes all three processes
• Reaping, threshing, and cleaning

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Plantation Farming

• Definition
• Involves large-scale farming operations that
  specialize in farming of one or two high-demand
  crops for export, usually to more developed
  regions
• Called plantations or agricultural estates
• Introduced in tropical and subtropical zones by
  European colonizers
• Seeking to produce crops such as
• Coffee, tea, pineapples, palms, coconuts, rubber,
  tobacco, sugar cane, and cotton

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Plantation Farming

• Today, plantation farming is largely reflective
  of global power structures
• Most exist in low-latitude regions of Africa,
  Asia, and Latin America
• Most owned by companies from more developed
  countries
• Often take the best land from natives
• Most plantations exist in a location that has
  easy coastal access for export

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Plantation Farming

• Through modern plantations have integrated
  advanced technology, still labor-intensive
• Large number of seasonal workers used
• Form of plantation agriculture remains in the
  subtropical and tropical U.S.
• Migrant workers used for labor

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Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming

• Predominant type of agriculture in the Southeast
  United States
• Region has a long growing season and humid
  climate and is accessible to the large markets
• New York, Philly, Washington D.C.
• Often called truck farming
• Truck means bartering or exchange of
  commodities
• Grow fruits and vegetables
• Sold fresh to consumers

• Highly efficient large-scale operations
• Labor costs kept down by hiring migrant workers
• Many undocumented

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Von Thunens Agriculture Location Theory

• Johann Heinrich von Thunen a 19th century
  economist
• Wrote book The Isolated State 1826
• Formulated model to explain and predict where and
  why different agricultural practices would take
  place around a citys marketplace
• What it says
• Farmers consider which crops to cultivate and
  which animals to raise based on market location
• The farmer compares two costs
• Cost of land vs. cost of transporting goods to
  market

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Von Thunens Model

• Based model on assumptions
• Assumed there was only one city with one, central
  marketplace where all farmers sell their products
• Assumed that the farmland is all equally farmable
  and productive and there is only one type of
  transportation mode
• Also assumed no social customs or government
  policies would influence farmers choices

• Given these assumptions, von Thunens model
  allowed for only one variable to change in his
  model
• The distance a farms location was from the
  citys market as evident in transportation costs

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Von Thunens Model

• In the model, the central marketplace is
  surrounded by agricultural activity zones that
  are in concentric rings
• Each ring represents a different type of
  agricultural land use
• Moving outward from the citys central
  marketplace, the farming activities change from
  intensive to more extensive

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Von Thunens Model

• Reasons explaining the Models predictions
• Land closest to the citys marketplace is more
  expensive per unit than is land farther away from
  the citys center
• A grain farmer who needs a lot of land for
  his/her extensive farming operation is going to
  purchase a farm further away from the citys
  central marketplace because the land is less
  expensive

• A milk producer is likely to buy land closer to
  the citys center because he/she doesnt need the
  extensive land a grain-farmer needs to produce
  the same profit
• Additionally, the dairy farm needs to be closer
  to the marketplace so milk can be transported to
  the marketplace for sale before it spoils
• Grazing is often the land uses farthest away from
  marketplace

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Von Thunens Model

• Usefulness of the Model
• Useful in comparing real situations to his
  theoretical farming situation
• One that is restricted to only one variable
  (transportation costs) chaning
• In the real world, agricultural land use patterns
  depend on more than one variable

• Von Thunen knew his work was based on his
  theoretical assumptions so he introduced some
  variations
• Existence of a river running through the city,
  possibility of multiple marketplaces, idea that
  soil was not equal everywhere in the model
• Overall the model emphasizes the influence of
  distance as a factor in human location decisions
• According to Von Thunen, farming decisions, like
  so many other spatial patterns, relate to
  distance

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Model applied on national scale