Consolidation in U.S. Dairy Farming

James M. McDonald, Jonathan Law and Roberto Mosheim

No 303971, Economic Research Report from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: The number of licensed U.S. dairy herds fell by more than half between 2002 and 2019, with an accelerating rate of decline in 2018 and 2019, even as milk production continued to grow. As a result, production has been shifting to much larger but fewer farms. Larger operations realize lower costs of production, on average, and those advantages persist. This structural change also features shifts in the location of dairy farming and in the production practices used on farms. This report, following upon two earlier ERS reports on the subject, details how the dairy sector has been transformed, and assesses the financial and productive factors behind that transformation.

Keywords: Farm; Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 61
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uersrr:303971

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.303971

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