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Farm structural change of a different kind: Alternative dairy farms in Wisconsin—graziers, organic and Amish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2008

Caroline Brock  and
Bradford Barham
Caroline Brock*
Affiliation:
Department of Environment and Resources and Program on Agricultural Technology Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.
Bradford Barham
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and Program on Agricultural Technology Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.
*
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
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Abstract

Although the emergence of large confinement operations out of a system previously dominated by mid-sized confinement has been one major structural trend in Wisconsin dairy farming since the 1990s, a second structural trend has been the significant emergence of moderate-sized dairy farms using alternative management strategies: management-intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) (25% of Wisconsin's dairy farms), organic production (3%) and Amish farm production practices (5–7%). This paper presents the first systematic and representative comparative study on the structure, behavior and performance of multiple pasture-based dairy farm strategies. Wisconsin is an ideal site for this study given the prevalence of pasture-based farms, yet many of the findings here should be relevant for other traditional dairy states where similar types of alternative farm management systems are also emerging. Divergence with respect to farm strategy has implications for structure, technology and management adoption patterns as well as farmer satisfaction levels. Our findings suggest that alternative dairy farming systems are likely to become more prevalent on the agricultural landscape of Wisconsin.

Keywords

dairy structureindustrializationdivergenceAmishorganic farmingpasture dairyintensive grazing
Type
Research Papers
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 25 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

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