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THE FUTURE SIZE OF FARMS: MODELLING THE EFFECT OF CHANGE IN LABOUR AND MACHINERY
Author(s) -
Walford Nigel
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1983.tb01013.x
Subject(s) - arable land , cropping , agriculture , scale (ratio) , capital (architecture) , agricultural economics , test (biology) , economics , geography , ecology , cartography , archaeology , biology
The response to the increase in average farm size in England in recent decades, particularly by those with a concern for the rural landscape, has been to pose the question: how much bigger can farms become? This paper contributes to the discussion of this question by examining how different combinations of land, labour and capital and/or improvements in these resources can lead to the formation of large farms. Two models are constructed representing different cropping systems and Linear Programming is employed to test for the effect of variation in the quantity and characteristics of labour and machinery. The data used in the models were derived from random sampling among the large, arable farms of the South and East of England. ‘Big scale farming in England still remains to be tried’. (Orwin, 1930).