Crop and Livestock Production on Beef and Hog Producing Midwestern Organic Farms: 1977 and 1978

摘要

The sample of organic farms for this study was drawn from a survey which identified over 250 farmers in the western Corn Belt who do not use standard commercial fertilizers or pesticides and who primarily produce field crops, generally in association with livestock, on farms of over 40 hectares in size. The study sample was limited to beef and hog producing farms in Iowa, Souther Minnesota, and northern Illinois which had been soil mapped. Wherever possible, organic farms were compared to all beef and hog farms in each of the counties in which the organic farms were located. Less land was used for corn and more for oats on organic beef and hog farms than on similar farms in the same counties. The market value of crops produced per unit area of cropland on the county beef and hog farms was higher than on organic farms, but the difference was much smaller in the poor growing season of 1977, than in the superior growing season of 1978.