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
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
Definition
Commercial grazing, or the raising of
animals on a plot of land on which
they graze
Ranching is usually extensive
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
Cattle and sheep are most
common animals on ranches
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
Definition
Growth of milk-based
products for the marketplace
Dairy farms closest to the
marketplace usually produce
the most perishable, fluidmilk 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
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
Definition
Where the grains are most
often grown to be exported to
other places for consumption
Within North America,
large-scale grain
production is concentrated
within three areas
Winter-wheat belt
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
Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma
Spring-wheat belt
Dakotas, Montana, Southern
Saskatchewan Canada
Palouse region
Washington State
Large-scale grain farms grew
during Industrial Revolution
Farms are usually highly
mechanized, capital-intensive
operations
Several technological innovations
precipitated the growth of largescale grain farming:
McCormick Reaper 1830s
Cuts standing grain in the field
Combine Machine
Completes all three processes:
Reaping, threshing, and cleaning
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
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
Through modern plantations
have integrated advanced
technology, still laborintensive
Large number of seasonal
workers used
Form of plantation
agriculture remains in the
subtropical and tropical U.S.
Migrant workers used for labor
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
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
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
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
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 grainfarmer 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
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