Agriculture

1. Agriculture Commercial Farming

2. 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

3. 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 farm’s animals • Provides manure fertilizer for sale as well as goods • Most of mixed farm’s income comes from sale of its animal products • Reduces farmer’s 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 city’s 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

7. 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 • World’s 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Von Thunen’s 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 city’s marketplace • What is 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

14. Von Thunen’s 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 farmer’s choices • Given these assumptions, von Thunen’s model allowed for only one variable to change in his model • The distance a farm’s location was from the city’s market as evident in transportation costs

15. Von Thunen’s 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 city’s central marketplace, the farming activities change from intensive to more extensive

16. Von Thunen’s Model • Reasons explaining the Model’s predictions • Land closest to the city’s marketplace is more expensive per unit than is land farther away from the city’s 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 city’s central marketplace because the land is less expensive • A milk producer is likely to buy land closer to the city’s center because he/she doesn’t 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

17. Von Thunen’s 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

19. Model applied on national scale