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 Ranching is usually extensive
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