The Transformation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency, and Risks
By James M. MacDonald and William D. McBride
Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-43) 46 pp,
January 2009
U.S. livestock production has shifted to much larger and more specialized farms, and the
various stages of input provision, farm production, and processing are now much more
tightly coordinated through formal contracts and shared ownership of assets. Important
financial advantages have driven these structural changes, which in turn have boosted
productivity growth in the livestock sector. But structural changes can also generate
environmental and health risks for society, as industrialization concentrates animals and
animal wastes in localized areas. This report relies on farm-level data to detail the nature,
causes, and effects of structural changes in livestock production.
Keywords: Livestock, dairy, broilers, hogs, fed cattle, farm structure, scale economies,
contract agriculture, CAFOs, growth-promoting antibiotics, ERS, USDA
In this report ... Chapters are
in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
- Abstract, Contents, and Summary, 47 kb.
- Introduction, 25 kb.
- How Has the Structure of Animal Agriculture Changed?, 151 kb.
- Drivers of Structural Change: Technology and Scale Economies, 194 kb.
- Other Drivers of Structural Change, 22 kb.
- Impacts of Structural Change, 176 kb.
- Conclusions, 17 kb.
- References, 23 kb.
Charts and graphs (in .png format) from this report are available in the .zip file listed below. The .zip file also contains a document (readme.txt) that lists the name and title of each chart or graph file.
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Updated date: January 23, 2009
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