Human Geography By James Rubenstein

1
Human Geography By James Rubenstein

• Chapter 10
• Key Issue 3
• Where Are Agriculture Regions in More Developed
  Countries?

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Commercial agriculture in MDCs

• Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming
• Dairy
• Grain Farming
• Livestock Ranching
• Mediterranean Agriculture
• Horticulture

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Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

• Most common form of commercial agriculture in the
  United States west of the Appalachians and east
  of 98west longitude and in much of Europe from
  France to Russia.

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Characteristics of Mixed Crop and Livestock
Farming

• Integration of crops and livestock.
• Most of the crops are fed to animals.
• Permits farmers to distribute the workload more
  evenly through the year and reduces seasonal
  variations in income.

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Crop Rotation Systems

• Typically involved in mixed crop and livestock
  farming.
• Nutrients depleted from a field are restored only
  by leaving the field fallow (uncropped) for many
  years.

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History of Crop Rotation Systems

• A two-field crop-rotation system was developed in
  Northern Europe as early as the 5th century A.D.
• In the 8th century, a three-field system was
  introduced.
• A four-field system was used in Northwest Europe
  by the 18th century.

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Four Crop Field

• Each field thus passed through a cycle of four
  crops
• root,
• cereal,
• rest crop, and
• another cereal.

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Cereal Grain

• A grass yielding grain for food.
• Grain is sold for flour, cereal, and beer
  production.

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• Root crops were fed to the animals during the
  winter.
• Clover and other "rest" crops were used for
  cattle grazing and restoration of nitrogen to the
  soil.

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Choice of Crops

• In the U.S., farmers select corn most frequently
  because of higher yields per area than other
  crops.
• Some corn is consumed by people, but most is fed
  to pigs and cattle, and more recently, used for
  ethanol.
• Soybeans have become the second most important
  crop in the U.S.

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Corn Production
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Dairy Farming

• Dairy farming is the most important type of
  commercial agriculture practiced on farms near
  the large urban areas of the U.S., Canada,
  Europe, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Nearly 60 of the world's supply of milk is
  produced and consumed in these developed regions.

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Dairy Farming History

• Traditionally, fresh milk was rarely consumed
  except directly on the farm or in nearby
  villages.
• During the 19th century, demand for the sale of
  milk and milk products to urban residents
  increased.
• Milk and milk products were once considered
  luxuries.

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Milk Production
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Why Dairy Farms Locate Near Urban Areas

• Dairying has become the most important type of
  commercial agriculture in the first ring outside
  large cities because of transportation factors.

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• Improvements in transportation have permitted
  dairying to be undertaken farther from the
  market.
• As a result, nearly every farm in the U.S.,
  Northeast and Northwest Europe is within the
  milkshed of at least one urban area.

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Milkshed

• The area surrounding a city from which milk is
  supplied without spoiling.

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How many cows are needed to supply the milk for
one days ice cream production at the Blue Bell
Creamery in Brenham?

• 50,000

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U.S. Regional Differences in Dairy Products

• Choice of product varies depending on whether the
  farms are within the milkshed of a large urban
  area.
• In the east, milk is sold to consumers of the
  urban areas.
• Farther west, most milk is processed into cheese
  and butter.

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• Countries likewise tend to specialize in certain
  products.
• New Zealand, the world's largest producer of
  dairy products, devotes about 5 to liquid milk,
  compared to over 50 in the U.K.
• Dairy farmers, like other commercial farmers,
  usually do not sell their products directly to
  consumers.

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Problems for Dairy Farmers

• Labor-intensive.
• Expensive to feed the cows in the winter, when
  they may be unable to graze on grass.

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• The number of farms with milk cows declined in
  the U.S. by 2/3rds between 1980 and 2000.
• The number of dairy cows declined by only 1/8th,
  while production actually increased by 1/4th.
• Yie1ds per cow increased substantially.

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Grain Farming

• Commercial grain agriculture is distinguished
  from mixed crop and livestock farming because
  crops on a grain farm are grown primarily for
  consumption by humans rather than by livestock.

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Grain

• Seed from various grasses, like wheat, corn,
  oats, barley, rice millet, and others.
• Wheat generally can be sold for a higher price
  than other grains and it has more uses as human
  food.

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Grain-farming Regions

• The U.S. is by far the largest commercial
  producer of grain.
• Commercial grain production is also found in
  Canada, Argentina, Australia, France, and the
  U.K.
• Commercial grain farms are located in regions too
  dry for mixed crop and livestock agriculture.

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North American Grain Production

• The winter wheat belt that extends through
  Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma.
• The spring wheat belt of the Dakotas, Montana,
  and southern Saskatchewan in Canada.
• The Palouse region of Washington State.

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Winter Wheat

• Wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the
  early summer.

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Spring Wheat

• Wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the
  late summer.

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Wheat Production
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• Large-scale grain production is heavily
  mechanized.
• Unlike work on a mixed crop and livestock farm,
  the effort required to grow wheat is not uniform
  throughout the year.
• Some individuals or firms may therefore have two
  sets of fields--one in the spring-wheat belt and
  one in the winter-wheat belt.

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• The same machinery can be used in the two
  regions, thus spreading the cost of the expensive
  equipment.
• Combine companies start working in Oklahoma in
  early summer and work their way northward.

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Reaper

• A machine that cuts grain standing in the field.

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McCormick Reaper, invented in 1830s,
revolutionized farming.
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Combine

• A machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans grain
  while moving over a field.

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Importance of Wheat

• Wheat is grown to a considerable extent for
  international trade and is the world's leading
  export crop.
• The ability to provide food for many people
  elsewhere in the world is a major source of
  economic and political strength for the U.S. and
  Canada.

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Ranching

• A from of commercial agriculture in which
  livestock graze over an extensive area
• practiced in more developed countries, where the
  vegetation is too sparse and the soil too poor to
  support crops.

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Cattle Ranching in U.S. Popular Culture

• The importance of ranching extends beyond the
  number of people who choose this form of
  commercial farming because of its prominence in
  popular culture.
• Cattle ranching in Texas actually dominated
  commercial agriculture from 1867 to 1885.

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Beginning of U.S. Cattle Ranching

• Brought to the Americas by Columbus.
• Cattle thrived on the frontiers.
• Beef demand in Eastern U.S. cities during the
  1860s encouraged expansion of ranching.
• Ranchers got 10 times more money per head in
  Chicago then in Texas.

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Transporting Cattle to Market

• To reach Chicago, cattle were driven on hoof from
  Texas to the nearest railhead (Abilene, Kansas,
  in 1867).
• The most famous route from Texas was the Chisholm
  Trail.

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The Chisholm Trail, for a few years, was the main
route from Texas ranches to Kansas railheads.
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Fixed Location Ranching

• Cattle ranching declined in importance during the
  l880s after it came in conflict with sedentary
  agriculture.
• The early cattle ranchers depended on open
  grazing in the West
• They owned little land, only cattle.

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Range Wars

• The U.S. government, which owned most of the land
  used for open grazing, began to sell it to
  farmers.
• For a few years the ranchers tried to drive out
  the farmers.

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Farmers Won

• The farmers' most potent weapon proved to be
  barbed wire, first commercially produced in 1873.
• Ranchers were compelled to buy or lease land to
  accommodate their cattle.
• 60 of cattle grazing today are on land leased
  from the U.S. government.

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Cattle Ranch
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Changes in Cattle Breeding

• A change in the predominant breed of cattle
  induced ranchers to switch to fixedlocation
  ranching.
• Longhorns were hardy animals, but the meat of
  longhorns was of poor quality.
• New cattle breeds offered superior meat but were
  not adapted to the open range system.

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Changes in Cattle Breeding

• Long trail drives gave way to short truck trips
  to meat packers.
• The spread of irrigation techniques and hardier
  crops has encouraged the conversion from ranching
  to farming.
• Cattle are still raised on ranches but are
  frequently sent to feed lots for fattening.

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Feed Lot
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Ranching outside the U.S.

• Ranching is rare in Europe, except in Spain and
  Portugal.
• Sheep are more common than cattle in Australia.
• Sheep ranches are predominant in the Middle East,
  New Zealand, and South Africa.
• Cattle and sheep graze the pampas in South
  America.

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Ranching in Argentina

• The relatively humid climate on the pampas
  provides more shoots and shrubs than in the U.S.
  West.
• Land was divided into large holdings in the 19th
  century.
• Ranching has declined in Argentina, because
  growing crops is more profitable except on very
  dry lands.

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Ranching Stages

1. Herding over open ranges,
2. Transformed into fixed farming by dividing the
   open land.
3. Many farms converted to growing crops, and
   ranching was confined to the drier lands.
4. Ranching became part of the meatprocessing
   industry.

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Meat Production
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Mediterranean Agriculture

• Farmers in lands that border the Mediterranean
  Sea, California, central Chile, the southwestern
  part of South Africa, and southwestern Australia
  practice Mediterranean agriculture.

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Mediterranean Climate and Landscape

• Prevailing sea winds provide moisture and
  moderate the winter temperatures.
• Summers are hot and dry.
• The land is very hilly.

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Mediterranean Lands

• Most crops grown for human consumption.
• Horticulture and tree crops form commercial base
  of the farming.
• Local physical and cultural characteristics
  determine which crops are grown.
• Olives and grapes are the most important cash
  crops.

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Horticulture

• The growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

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• Despite the importance of olives and grapes to
  commercial farms bordering the Mediterranean Sea,
  approximately half of the land is devoted to
  growing cereals, especially wheat for pasta and
  bread.

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California Agriculture

• Much of farmland is devoted to fruit and
  vegetable horticulture.
• Rapid growth of urban areas has converted
  high-quality agricultural land into housing
  developments.
• Loss of farmland has been offset by expansion of
  agriculture into arid lands requiring massive
  irrigation.

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Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming

• Commercial gardening, vegetable, and fruit
  farming is predominant type of agriculture in the
  U.S. Southeast, called truck farming.
• Large-scale operations that take full advantage
  of machines.
• Labor costs are kept down by hiring migrant farm
  workers.

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Truck Farming

• Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named
  because truck was a Middle English word meaning
  bartering or the exchange of commodities.

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• A handful of farms may dominate national output
  of some fruits and vegetables.
• A form of truck farming called specialty farming
  has spread to New England, growing crops that
  have limited but increasing demand among affluent
  consumers.

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Plantation Farming

• Form of commercial agriculture found in the
  tropics and subtropics, especially in Latin
  America, Africa, and Asia.
• Plantations are often owned or operated by
  Europeans or North Americans.

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Plantation

• A large farm in tropical and subtropical climates
  that specializes in the production of one or two
  crops for sale, usually to a more developed
  country.

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• Important crops are cotton, sugarcane, coffee,
  rubber, tobacco, cocoa, jute, bananas, tea,
  coconuts, and palm oil.

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• Plantations are usually situated in sparsely
  settled locations, and must import workers.
• Managers spread work throughout the year to make
  full use of large labor force.
• Crops normally processed at the plantation.
• Processed goods are less bulky and therefore
  cheaper to ship.

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U.S. Civil War Plantations

• Until the Civil War, the principal crop in the
  U.S. South was cotton, followed by tobacco and
  sugarcane.
• Slaves brought from Africa performed the labor
  until the Souths defeat.
• Thereafter, plantations were either sold to
  individual farmers or worked by tenant farmers.