IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uerser/307907.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economies of Size in U.S. Field Crop Farming

Author

Listed:
  • Miller, Thomas A.
  • Rodewald, Gordon E.
  • McElroy, Robert G.

Abstract

Economies of size refers to the relative cost efficiency associated with different firm sizes. As farm size increases in most field crop regions, per-unit costs decline at first and then are relatively constant. Medium-size commercial farms ($41,000 to $76,000 gross income) achieve most available technical cost efficiencies. Society would likely benefit little in terms of lower real food costs from further increase in the size of these farms. Apparently economies of size are not a major factor in farm enlargement; farmers expand their farms to increase income rather than to reduce per-unit costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Miller, Thomas A. & Rodewald, Gordon E. & McElroy, Robert G., 1981. "Economies of Size in U.S. Field Crop Farming," Agricultural Economic Reports 307907, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:uerser:307907
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.307907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/307907/files/aer472.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.307907?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philip M. Raup, 1978. "Some Questions of Value and Scale in American Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(2), pages 303-308.
    2. Seckler, David, 1970. "Reflections on management, scale, and mechanization in agriculture," WAEA/ WFEA Conference Archive (1929-1995) 291592, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    3. Reimund, Donn A. & Martin, J. Rod & Moore, Charles V., 1981. "Structural Change in Agriculture: The Experience for Broilers, Fed Cattle, and Processing Vegetables," Technical Bulletins 157701, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. David Seckler & Robert A. Young, 1978. "Economic and Policy Implications of the 160-Acre Limitation in Federal Reclamation Law," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(4), pages 575-588.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Al-Amin, A.K.M. Abdullah & Lowenberg-DeBoer, James & Franklin, Kit & Behrendt, Karl, 2021. "Economic Implications of Field Size for Autonomous Arable Crop Equipment," Agri-Tech Economics Papers 316595, Harper Adams University, Land, Farm & Agribusiness Management Department.
    2. Al-Amin, A.K.M. Abdullah & Lowenberg-DeBoer, James & Franklin, Kit & Behrendt, Karl, 2021. "Economic Implications of Field Size for Autonomous Arable Crop Equipment," Land, Farm & Agribusiness Management Department 316595, Harper Adams University, Land, Farm & Agribusiness Management Department.
    3. Abdullah Al-Amin, A.K.M & Lowenberg‑DeBoer, James & Franklin, K. & Behrendt, K., 2022. "Economics of Field Size for Autonomous Crop Machines," Agri-Tech Economics Papers 322755, Harper Adams University, Land, Farm & Agribusiness Management Department.
    4. Baum, Kenneth H. & Harrington, David H., 1983. "Effects of Alternative Economic Scenarios and Commodity Policies on Regional Representative Farms," Staff Reports 337010, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stanton, B.F., 1989. "Changes in Farm Size and Structure in American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century," Staff Papers 197561, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    2. van der Merwe, G. P., 1990. "Research Note: Organised Futures Trading," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 29(1), February.
    3. Lasley, Floyd A. & Henson, William L. & Jones, Harold B., Jr., 1985. "The U.S. Turkey Industry," Agricultural Economic Reports 305705, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Moore, Charles V., 1982. "Impact Of Federal Acreage Limitation Policy On Western Irrigated Agriculture," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 7(2), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Johnson, Nancy L., 1995. "The Diffusion Of Livestock Breeding Technology In The U.S.: Observations On The Relationship Between Technical Change And Industry Structure," Staff Papers 13706, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    6. Stanton, B.F., 1989. "Changes In Farm Size And Structure In American Agriculture In The Twentieth Century," 1989 Conference, January 7-10, Tucson, Arizona 260156, Regional Research Committe NC-181: Determinants of Farm Size and Structure.
    7. Rick Welsh & Bryan Hubbell & Chantal Line Carpentier, 2003. "Agro-Food System Restructuring and the Geographic Concentration of US Swine Production," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(2), pages 215-229, February.
    8. Jeffrey M. Gillespie & Alvin R. Schupp, 2002. "The Role of Speculation and Information in the Early Evolution of the United States Ostrich Industry: An Industry Case Study," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 24(1), pages 278-292.
    9. Gillespie, Jeffrey M. & Davis, Christopher G. & Rahelizatovo, Noro C., 2004. "Factors Influencing the Adoption of Breeding Technologies in U.S. Hog Production," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 35-47, April.
    10. Knutson, Ronald D. & Smith, Edward G. & Richardson, James W., 1990. "The Incidence of Farm Program Benefits: Implications for Payment Limit Policies," Working Papers 258045, Texas A&M University, Agricultural and Food Policy Center.
    11. Wysong, John W. & Leigh, Mary G. & Ganguly, Pradeep, 1984. "The Economic Viability of Commercial Fresh Vegetable Production in the Northeastern United States," Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 1-8, April.
    12. Cornell, Laurence D. & Sorenson, Vernon L., 1986. "Implications of Structural Change in U.S. Demand for Meat on U.S. Livestock and Grain Markets," Agricultural Economic Report Series 201355, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    13. Richardson, James W. & Condra, Gary D., 1979. "An Improved Procedure for Evaluating Alternative Farm Sizes," 1979 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, Pullman, Washington 278306, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    14. Wampach, Jean-Pierre, 1983. "Productivité, efficacité économique et équité dans le secteur agricole québécois," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 59(4), pages 669-685, décembre.
    15. McBride, William D. & Key, Nigel D., 2003. "Economic And Structural Relationships In U.S. Hog Production," Agricultural Economic Reports 33971, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    16. Knutson, Ronald D., 1979. "The structure of agriculture: An evaluation of conventional wisdom," Agricultural Outlook Forum Archive 1923 - 1997 325902, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Outlook Forum.
    17. Small, L. E. & Adriano, M. S. & Martin, E. D. & Bhatia, R. & Shim, Y. K. & Pradhan, P., 1989. "Financing irrigation services: a literature review and selected case studies from Asia," IWMI Books, Reports H005735, International Water Management Institute.
    18. MacDonald, James M. & Korb, Penni & Hoppe, Robert A., 2013. "Farm Size and the Organization of U.S. Crop Farming," Economic Research Report 262221, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Harrison, Alan, 1978. "Financing Farm Real Estate," 1978 International Congress (2nd), September 1978, Dijon, France 316573, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Meekhof, Ronald L. & Penn, J.B. & Johnson, James & Miller, Thomas A., 1980. "Agricultural-Food Policy Review," Economics Statistics and Cooperative Services (ESCS) Reports 279723, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uerser:307907. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ersgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.