Spatiotemporal Analysis of Dairy Farm Productivity, Size, and Entry-Exit in the US

The US dairy industry has experienced significant structural changes in the last few decades. Dairy production has been consolidated into fewer but larger farms, and shifting toward Western and Southern states from traditional dairy regions including the Lake States and Corn Belt. The changes also involved significant entry and exit of small- and medium-sized farms. The paper attempts to characterize patterns of dynamic evolution of productivity, size, and entryexit of dairy farms over time and across major production regions in the US. The analysis sheds light on the contribution of farm and regional characteristics on farm-level productivity changes. Regional differences in climate and economic interconnection between farm productivity and entry-exit are also examined with a focus on the distinction among dairy farm sizes.