Changes In Dairy Farming In The Northeast

Author : Elena M. Garabis
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (678 download)

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Download or read book The Geographic Evolution of the Ohio Dairy Sector written by Elena M. Garabis and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: The dairy industry in the United States has faced significant changes in the past 50 years. These changes pertain to industry composition, structure and size. As this industry has changed, so has its geographic composition. The geographic evolution of this industry has concentrated and concentration has been attributed, in part, to an attempt to capture agglomeration economies. However, the extent of such agglomeration economies has not been fully analyzed. This analysis looks at the zip code level factors that are influencing the geographic evolution of the dairy sector in Ohio in order to confirm if new farm births from 1999-2003 follow the national trends of concentration within this industry and to verify if this concentration is in fact occurring in response to agglomeration factors. The results of this study confirm that new farm births are indeed concentrating in areas that allow for the capturing of benefits provided by agglomeration economies. Literature on the theories of agglomeration economies does not provide any indication of the spatial limitations of the benefits of such close location. Because dairy farms create pollution, there should exist a delineation between locating close enough to capture the benefits of agglomeration economies but locating far enough away from other farms to minimize the costs of complying with environmental regulations, which require land application of manure. Previous studies on agglomeration economies have not delved below the zip code level; this study does so by examining dairy farm location at the sub-zip-code level. Examining the effects of agglomeration economies at the sub-zip-code level allows for a breakdown of the effects of close location. Individual farm level data was collected, along with zip code level data for each farm. Using geocoded addresses for each farm, distances estimates between farms were determined. Likelihood ratio tests prompted the division of the state into three sub-groups: all Amish farms in the state, all non-Amish farms in the northeast and all non-Amish farms in the rest of the state. Sub-zip-code level results reveal trends in these different sub-groups of births occurring in the period from 1999-2003. Compared to location decisions made prior to 1999, Amish farmers tend to locate in closer proximity due to social agglomeration benefits than they did prior to 1999, non-Amish farmers in the northeast are more attracted to locations that are close to processing plants than they were prior to 1999, and non-Amish farmers in the rest of the state are more attracted to areas with low population density and cheap land than they were prior to 1999. These results verify that close location in this industry varies throughout the different regions and sub-groups in the state. Because the presence of agglomeration economies was identified at the zip code level, the sub-zip code analysis increases the magnification and detail of the results. For all groups there exists a modest trend in the more recent period to avoiding locations with large numbers of dairy farms within a 20 kilometer radius of the new location, suggesting that the benefits of agglomeration have attenuated during recent years. The results of this research provide an intricate look at the geographic evolution of the dairy industry and the identification of agglomeration economies present in this industry. It also highlights that regional differences exist with regard to sub-zip-code level location decisions and agglomeration economies. These results provide significant insight into the changes that may be expected in the Ohio dairy industry in the coming years.