Industrialization has long been proposed as a policy for promoting regional economic growth and reducing the incidence of unemployment, poverty and dependency in lagging regions (Smith). Such policy proposals are based on the trickle down theory. This theory holds that economic development results in an increase in the demand for skilled labor which in turn results in an upgrading of the positions of the semiskilled, unskilled, and unemployed. The result is economic growth and a reduction in the incidence of unemployment, poverty and dependency and the degree of income inequality in the area.

A contemporary exploration of the concept of “private sector delivery of public services” is necessitated by the fiscal “facts of life” prevalent in most local jurisdictions today. Documentation of the mounting costs of local government is readily available. All informed projections suggest that because of inflation and increased labor costs, this spiralina increase will not level off in the near future.

User charges were the second most important source of local government own source revenue in 1977. Local governments in 1977 collected $19 billion in user charges, such as admission fees. This represented 16 percent of total revenue from own sources. The biggest revenue producer at the local level, the property tax, accounted for half of all locally raised revenue.

Population has been increasing for at least a decade in rural areas of West Virginia as in many areas of the Nation. This phenomenon is transforming rural areas, with problems of growth replacing those of decline. If local governments, the extension service and others are to cope adequately with this emerging set of problems, more must be learned about the newer residents, their attitudes, needs and how they relate to those of the rest of the population in the area. A number of recent analyses of rural development attest to the serious data gap that exists with respect to knowledge in the area (Beal; Fuguitt, Voss and Doherty; Gilford, Nelson, and Ingram; Powers and Moe in Dillman and Hobbs, p. 14; and Sofranko and Williams). This paper reports on a 1981 survey of rural residents in nine selected West Virginia counties, a survey which was conducted to help solve the data gap problems.

There are nearly one million Holstein hull calves born in the Northeast each year. This is a sizeable resource that should be evaluated for fed beef production to determine if it is a potentially viable alternative enterprise for Northeast farms. Previous research at Cornell has presented several beef production systems that would be practical in the Northeast (Knoblauch et al., Woodell). An additional system would be the rearing of the steer calves with the replacement heifers on dairy farms. Many dairymen have expressed a desire to expand their operation without increasing the milking herd, because of labor, management, facilities limitation or personal desires. Raising the Holstein steer calves produced on dairy farms is an alternative for expanding the farm operation and a means of marketing surplus forages. The purpose of this paper is to outline feeding and management strategies for raising the steers with the replacement heifers and marketing them either as feeder cattle or fed beef. The objectives are to use home-grown forages for as much of the feeding period as possible, maintain efficient growth and produce a quality feeder or slaughter weight steer.

This paper presents empirical measures of the efficiency of the New York family dairy farm over its life cycle. The increase and then decrease in farm efficiency with age is only minor. Factors not correlated with age are much more important in determining efficiency. Exiting farmers who appear not to have children to take over the family farm are managing and maintaining the farm as well as exiting farmers who have potential future farming children.

On most Northeastern dairy farms bull calves are considered a superfluous output and are sent to auction markets as soon as possible after they are born. The excess supply situation in the United States dairy industry combined with other obstacles to dairy herd expansion has resulted in dairy producers seeking expansion options other than increased dairy herd size. Several alternatives for expanding the dairy farm business that utilize bull calves as a resource are possible. Dairy beef systems that are most complementary to the ongoing dairy business should be particularly attractive.

New methods of moving manure to storages, new manure storage structures and new manure spreading technologies are now found on dairy farms. Consequently, farmers are in need of labor requirements, investment and annual cost data. The purpose of this article is to present current investment, labor and annual cost information that will aid farmers in making economical decisions relative to selecting alternative manure handling systems. Manure handling systems presented in Table 1 were planned for freestall housing and 75, 150 and 300 cow herd sizes. These systems were based on a survey of 98 dairy farms in the Monocacy River Watershed (Holik and Lessley), data from the Agricultural Engineering Department of the University of Maryland, the Soil Conservation Service and the Midwest Plan Service. The manure handling systems and herd sizes modeled are considered to be representative of dairies found in Maryland.

Raising livestock has always been a difficult and arduous occupation. The financial risks are substantial and the long-term returns in many instances are merely adequate, at best. When the cattle are raised in fringe producing areas, such as much of the Northeast, the complexities are magnified. Producers must use additional managerial expertise to offset partially their cost disadvantage compared to feeders operating in more grain-rich areas.

The current and future world food problem is centered in low income nations and among low income segments of populations world wide. The thesis of this paper is that increases in income and food production in the poorer nations and among low income segments of rural populations elsewhere are likely to aggravate that problem in the first instance. It is after some minimum level of economic well being has been attained that further increases in income will result in reduced family size.

In 1979 it was estimated that the total number of cattle and calves on farms in the six New England states was 717,000 head. To place this in perspective, this number corresponds to one-fourth the number of head on Illinois farms in that year. Put another way, the New England cattle inventory is 0.6 percent of the national herd. Beef cow numbers in New England totaled 42,000 head in 1979 or 0.1 percent of the national beef cow herd. As nearly everyone knows, the dairy industry is responsible for the bulk of the cattle industry in the region. The number of beef type heifers and steers over 500 pounds (a rough indicator of marketings) for the region was 24,000 head in 1979. Cattle slaughter in New England plants (including cull dairy animals) totaled 161,500 head in 1978 or 0.4 percent of the national slaughter figure (Agricultural Statistics, 1979).

The GREEN REVOLUTION has been offered as an example of both what to do and what not to do as international agriculture development. An appraisal is made of the benefits and consequences of the GREEN REVOLUTION for both wheat and rice. The history of the GREEN REVOLUTION is traced to its origins in pre-war Japan for both its concept and as the source of genetic material. The successful “production technology” approach of the wheat research program in Mexico is compared to the “appropriate technology” of the less successful maize research program. Lessons are drawn from the experience of the GREEN REVOLUTION that may prove helpful when planning or evaluating international agricultural development projects.

Technological developments in rice production in Asia have greatly increased the potential returns to irrigation investments. It is likely that a substantial amount of resources will be allocated to irrigation development in the next two decades. But past experience suggests that the returns actually realized on these investments will be disappointing unless greater attention is paid to problems of effective water management, particularly in the main irrigation system. Human and institutional capabilities, and not physical or financial capital, are likely to be the most limiting factors in dealing with these problems.

Since World War II U.S. Agriculture has seen regional shifts and greater concentration in the production of certain commodities. Technological and infrastructural developments in irrigation, plant varieties, cultivation techniques, transportation, storage, and processing have lowered the barriers of time and space, thus allowing remote regions to compete with and even dominate the traditional production areas. The U.S. potato industry offers an excellent example of this. Processed potatoes have become the dominant food use form and production has shifted westward and become more concentrated both with respect to time and location. In 1947, 44 percent of U.S. potato production was in the seven largest potato states for the fall crop, 35 percent was produced in the nonfall crops, and eight percent was processed. By 1978, 75 percent was produced by the seven leading states for the fall crop, 14 percent in the early nonfall crops, and 59 percent was processed. Because many of these changes involved the adoption of relatively energy intensive techniques, the existence of low and fairly stable energy prices until 1973 aided this change. The increases in energy costs since 1973 raise questions about the long-run stability of recent patterns of production and consumption.

The energy crunch of the mid-seventies has adversely affected the greenhouse tomato industry in the North Central and Northeast regions. Traditionally, these two regions had been the main producers of greenhouse tomatoes in the U.S. where, because of the climatic restriction, greenhouse tomato production evolved to supply fresh tomatoes during winter and spring months. Since greenhouse producers in the north rely on fossil fuels for heating purposes, their production costs have escalated, thereby tending to price these tomatoes out of the market. In recent years many greenhouse tomato producers in the northern regions have either ceased production or switched into alternative enterprises. For instance, the Census of Agriculture reported 45 growers in Massachusetts in 1974, with covered areas of 535,842 square feet; by 1979, according to extension experts, the number declined to 25 and the area declined to between 150,000 and 200,000 square feet. The number of growers in New Jersey declined from 42 in the 1974 census to only 19 in 1979. Similar declines have occurred in New York and Pennsylvania.

This paper examines the economic, environmental and energy use impacts of a corn based ethanol industry on Western New York State. A regional linear programming model is used. Five representative farm groups are used to describe the agricultural sector of the study region. Comparisons are made between a benchmark solution and model formulations that include conservation tillage practices, ethanol induced feed price changes, and the feeding of the feed by-product, DDG.