The Industrialization of Livestock Production in The United States,

Southeastern Geographer Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1, May 1998, pp. 58-78 THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES l. 2 John Fraser Hart and Chris Mayda Livestock production in the United States has moved out o f the barnyard and into the factory during the second half o f the 20th century. Entrepreneurs have developed specialized, largescale , mass production system s for beef cattle, dairy cattle, broilers, eggs, turkeys, and hogs. They keep beef and dairy cattle in drylots, but house poultry and hogs in distinctive purposebuilt structures. They have borrowed ideas and technologies from each other, and the new pro­ duction systems have developed along parallel lines. M uch industrialized livestock production is vertically integrated, with a single decision-making unit controlling the entire production process. The gargantuan new operations have been highly controversial. During the second half of the 20th century, entrepreneurs have transformed American agriculture from a cottage industry into a highly specialized system of large-scale mass production. Hart (1986) reported that successful farmers in the Com Belt have been doing precisely what their computers have told them they can do best and most efficiently. They have greatly enlarged the acreage they culti­ vate, they are specializing in producing com and soybeans for direct sale as cash crops, and they have reduced their traditional reliance on livestock. The Corn Belt has become a specialized feed-producing region for the new livestock-producing areas that have been popping up in other parts of the country. Com and soybeans escalated from only 20% of all sales from Com Belt farms in 1949 to 50% in 1992, and livestock sales have dropped accordingly. Between 1949 and 1992 four Com Belt states (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) lost part of their share of the national market for com, hogs, cattle, poultry, and dairy prod­ ucts, and they gained national share only for soybeans (Fig. 1); their share for hogs will decline dramatically in the next decade. This paper explores changes since 1949 in the geography of American live­ stock production, which has been moving out of the Corn Belt. It has become con­ centrated in new areas, where it enjoys the same high degree of specialization as cash grain production in the Com Belt. Furthermore, the production of the differ­ ent kinds of livestock—beef, milk, broilers, eggs, turkeys, and hogs—has been developing along parallel if not converging lines toward similar large-scale mass production operations in distinctive purpose-built structures. Farmers have had to become specialists, and livestock production in the United States has moved out of the bamyard and into the factory. In 1949 three of Dr. Hart is Professor o f Geography at the University o f Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, and Ms. Mayda is a doctoral candidate at the University o f Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0255. V o l . X X X V I I I , N o. 1 59 60 >50 f > ; 40 j 130 7) I j 20 10 0 Com Belt Percentage of National Sales [Corn Hogs Soybeans The Corn Belt includes Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio Fig. 1. The Corn Belt’s share of national sales of corn, hogs, cattle, poultry, and dairy products decreased between 1949 and 1992. Fig. 2. Before 1950 most farms had chickens, milk cows, and hogs, but only a few farms had them in 1990. every four farms had a flock of barnyard hens and a few cattle, two of every three had a milk cow or two, and more than half butchered a few hogs for home con­ sumption (Fig. 2). By 1992 less than one farm in 10 had any hogs, milk cows, or chickens, because contemporary farmers buy their milk and butter, their eggs and meat, at the selfsame supermarkets where you and I buy them. Beef cattle are the exception, because more than half of our farms still had them in 1992 (Fig. 2). Beef cattle are the favored livestock of small landowners and part-time farmers. Their digestive systems enable them to ingest roughages 60 S o u t h e a s t e r n G e o g r a p h e...