Premium
Dairy Farm Survival in a Metropolitan Area: Dutchess County, New York, 1984–1990 1
Author(s) -
Hirschl Thomas A.,
Long Christine R.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1993.tb00505.x
Subject(s) - nonfarm payrolls , metropolitan area , context (archaeology) , bivariate analysis , agricultural economics , agricultural science , geography , agriculture , economics , biology , mathematics , statistics , archaeology
The effect of nonfarm development on dairy farm survival in New York's highly developed lower Hudson Valley is analyzed. The major hypothesis is that significant losses of dairy farms during this period are the result of urban development pressures. Contrary to this hypothesis, however, the bivariate and multivariate analyses of data from a mail survey of all commercial dairy operators in Dutchess County as of 1984 and industry survivors, exiters, and new entrants through 1990 demonstrate that nonfarm development has a negligible effect on dairy farm survival; rather, survival is significantly affected by age of operator and by family disruption. Thus, demographic and family process factors are found to be more powerful determinants of dairy farm survival in this particular metropolitan context.