Page Content Main Links Site Links
Home About ERS Briefing Rooms Publications Data Sets Newsroom Help Contact UsYou are here: Home / Publications
Cover Image
By William D. McBride and Catherine Greene
Economic Research Report No. (ERR-82) 50 pp, November 2009
Organic milk production has been one of the fastest growing segments of organic agriculture in the United States in recent years. Despite the growing number of organic dairy operations, the characteristics of organic dairy operations and the relative costs of organic and conventional milk production have been difficult to analyze. This study, using 2005 ARMS data for U.S. dairy operations, which include a targeted sample of organic milk producers, examines the structure, costs, and challenges of organic milk production. The analysis addresses economies of size, regional differences, and pasture use in organic milk production and compares organic and conventional milk production costs. The findings suggest that economic forces have made organic operations more like conventional operations and that the future structure of the industry may depend on the interpretation and implementation of new organic pasture rules.
Keywords: Dairy, organic, milk production, costs of production, pasture, Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), USDA, ERS
In this report ...
Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Charts and graphs (in .png format) from this report are available in the .zip file listed below. The .zip file also contains a document (readme.txt) that lists the name and title of each chart or graph file.
Order this report (stock #ERR-82 )
Updated date: November 2, 2009
Web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
Open the original version of this page.
Usablenet Assistive is a UsableNet product. Usablenet Assistive Main Page.