IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uersrr/55952.html

Characteristics, Costs, and Issues for Organic Dairy Farming

Author

Listed:
  • McBride, William D.
  • Greene, Catherine R.

Abstract

Organic milk production has been one of the fastest growing segments of organic agriculture in the United States in recent years. Despite the growing number of organic dairy operations, the characteristics of organic dairy operations and the relative costs of organic and conventional milk production have been difficult to analyze. This study, using 2005 ARMS data for U.S. dairy operations, which include a targeted sample of organic milk producers, examines the structure, costs, and challenges of organic milk production. The analysis addresses economies of size, regional differences, and pasture use in organic milk production and compares organic and conventional milk production costs. The findings suggest that economic forces have made organic operations more like conventional operations and that the future structure of the industry may depend on the interpretation and implementation of new organic pasture rules.

Suggested Citation

  • McBride, William D. & Greene, Catherine R., 2009. "Characteristics, Costs, and Issues for Organic Dairy Farming," Economic Research Report 55952, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uersrr:55952
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.55952
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/55952/files/ERR82.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.55952?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. Dimitri, Carolyn & Greene, Catherine R., 2002. "Recent Growth Patterns In The U.S. Organic Foods Market," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33715, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Manchester, Alden C. & Blayney, Donald P., 2001. "Milk Pricing In The United States," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33612, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. MacDonald, James M. & O'Donoghue, Erik J. & McBride, William D. & Nehring, Richard F. & Sandretto, Carmen L. & Mosheim, Roberto, 2007. "Profits, Costs, and the Changing Structure of Dairy Farming," Economic Research Report 6704, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    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. Law, Jonathan M., 2020. "Organic and Conventional Milk Production Practices and Costs between 2005 and 2016: Comparisons and Contrasts by Farm Size, Region and Pasture Use," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304615, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Gillespie, Jeffrey & Njuki, Eric & Terán, Angel, 2024. "Structure, Costs, and Technology Used on U.S. Dairy Farms," Economic Research Report 344571, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Marasteanu, I. Julia & Jaenicke, Edward C., 2013. "Agglomeration and Spatial Dependence in Certified Organic Operations in the United States," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149551, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Aimee N. Hafla & Jennifer W. MacAdam & Kathy J. Soder, 2013. "Sustainability of US Organic Beef and Dairy Production Systems: Soil, Plant and Cattle Interactions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(7), pages 1-26, July.
    5. Carlson, Andrea & Greene, Catherine & Raszap Skorbiansky, Sharon & Hitaj, Claudia & Ha, Kim & Cavigelli, Michel & Ferrier, Peyton & McBride, William, "undated". "U.S. Organic Production, Markets, Consumers, and Policy, 2000-21," USDA Miscellaneous 333551, United States Department of Agriculture.
    6. Nguyen Khanh Doanh & Nguyen Thi Thu Thuong & Yoon Heo, 2018. "Impact of Conversion to Organic Tea Cultivation on Household Income in the Mountainous Areas of Northern Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, November.
    7. Njuki, Eric, "undated". "Sources, Trends, and Drivers of U.S. Dairy Productivity and Efficiency," USDA Miscellaneous 323860, United States Department of Agriculture.
    8. Gillespie, Jeffrey & Raszap Skorbiansky, Sharon & Law, Jonathan, 2024. "U.S. Certified Organic Dairy Production: Three Decades of Growth," Economic Research Report 346026, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    9. Wolf, Christopher A. & Tonsor, Glynn T. & Olynk, Nicole J., 2011. "Understanding U.S. Consumer Demand for Milk Production Attributes," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 36(2), pages 1-17.
    10. MacDonald, James M., 2011. "Why Are Farms Getting Larger? The Case Of The U.S," 51st Annual Conference, Halle, Germany, September 28-30, 2011 115361, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    11. Foreman, Linda F., 2014. "Characteristics and Production Costs of U.S. Corn Farms, Including Organic, 2010," Economic Information Bulletin 186730, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. repec:ags:aaea13:150610 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Filip Hampl, 2020. "A statistical analysis of the financial performance of organic and conventional farms in the Czech Republic with respect to their size," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 66(1), pages 1-9.
    14. Jeffrey Gillespie & Richard Nehring, 2013. "Comparing economic performance of organic and conventional U.S. beef farms using matching samples," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 57(2), pages 178-192, April.
    15. Maysoon M. Mikha & Dwi P. Widiastuti & Tunsisa T. Hurisso & Joe E. Brummer & Jessica G. Davis, 2017. "Influence of Composted Dairy Manure and Perennial Forage on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Fractions during Transition into Organic Management," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-20, April.
    16. Marasteanu, I. Julia & Jaenicke, Edward C., 2014. "Clusters of Organic Operations and their Impact on Regional Economic Growth in the United States," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170336, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Delbridge, Timothy A., 2013. "Threshold Effects in Transition to Organic Dairy Production," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150554, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    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. Maria Raimondo & Francesco Caracciolo & Concetta Nazzaro & Giuseppe Marotta, 2021. "Organic Farming Increases the Technical Efficiency of Olive Farms in Italy," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Ariana P. Torres & Nicholas A. Lancaster & Luiz H. B. Vilas Boas, 2020. "Categorizing Organic Grain Buyers in the Midwestern United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Lohr, Luanne, 2002. "Benefits of U.S. organic agriculture," MPRA Paper 24327, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. O’Dierno, Linda J. & Govindasamy, Ramu & Puduri, Venkata S. & Myers, Joseph J. & Islam, Sho, 2006. "Consumer Perceptions and Preferences for Organic Aquatic Products: Results from the Telephone Survey," P Series 36743, Rutgers University, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics.
    5. William D. McBride & Catherine Greene, 2009. "Costs of Organic Milk Production on U.S. Dairy Farms," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(4), pages 793-813, December.
    6. repec:hal:journl:dumas-00802135 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Tronstad, Russell & Lev, Larry & Umberger, Wendy J., 2003. "Surviving And Thriving Through Direct Farm Marketing," Western Economics Forum, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 2(2), pages 1-7, December.
    8. Almuhanad Melhim & Erik J. O'Donoghue & C. Richard Shumway, 2009. "Do the Largest Firms Grow and Diversify the Fastest? The Case of U.S. Dairies," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(2), pages 284-302, June.
    9. Nehring, Richard F. & Gillespie, Jeffrey M. & Hallahan, Charles B. & Sauer, Johannes, 2012. "Economic Efficiency of U.S. Organic Versus Conventional Dairy Farms: Evidence from 2005 and 2010," 2012 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2012, Birmingham, Alabama 119769, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    10. Nehring, Richard & Gillespie, Jeffrey & Hallahan, Charles & Sauer, Johannes, "undated". "The Economics and Productivity of Organic versus Non-organic U.S. Dairy Farms," 2015 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia 196805, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    11. Veldstra, Michael D. & Alexander, Corinne E. & Marshall, Maria I., 2014. "To certify or not to certify? Separating the organic production and certification decisions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P2), pages 429-436.
    12. Monge, Juan J. & Bryant, Henry L. & Gan, Jianbang & Richardson, James W., 2016. "Land use and general equilibrium implications of a forest-based carbon sequestration policy in the United States," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 102-120.
    13. Richard Nehring & Jeffrey Gillespie & Carmen Sandretto & Charlie Hallahan, 2009. "Small U.S. dairy farms: can they compete?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(s1), pages 817-825, November.
    14. Wang, H. Holly & Ge, Yuanlong, 2008. "Will Too Many Lower Quality Fruits Damage The Organic Market," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 36976, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    15. MacDonald, James M., 2011. "Why Are Farms Getting Larger? The Case Of The U.S," 51st Annual Conference, Halle, Germany, September 28-30, 2011 115361, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    16. Nehring, Richard & Gillespie, Jeffrey & Erickson, Kenneth & Harris, J. Michael & Heutte, Silke & Sauer, Johannes, "undated". "Small U.S. Dairy Farms: Can They Compete? A Revisit," 2018 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2018, Jacksonville, Florida 266535, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    17. Rodrigues, Jonathan & Baker, Gregory A., . "Grameen Danone Foods Limited (GDF)," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 15(01), pages 1-32.
    18. Wang, Qingbin & Thompson, Ethan & Parsons, Robert, . "Preferences for Farmstead, Artisan, and Other Cheese Attributes: Evidence from a Conjoint Study in the Northeast United States," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 18(2), pages 1-20.
    19. Ralston, Katherine & Beaulieu, Elizabeth & Hyman, Jeffrey & Benson, Matthew & Smith, Michael, "undated". "Daily Access to Local Foods for School Meals: Key Drivers," Economic Information Bulletin 256713, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Li, Meng & Chapman, Gretchen B., 2013. "A big fish or a small pond? Framing effects in percentages," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 190-199.
    21. Eric Njuki & Boris E Bravo-Ureta & Víctor E Cabrera, 2020. "Corrigendum: Climatic effects and total factor productivity: econometric evidence for Wisconsin dairy farms," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 47(2), pages 848-848.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:uersrr:55952. 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.