Determinants of Motives for Land Use Decisions at the Margins of the Corn Belt

Abstract

The extent of United States Great Plains grass agriculture has ebbed and flowed over decades in response to market incentives, government policies, technological innovations and weather patterns. Our thesis is that the land most responsive to these drivers is at the economic margin between grass-based production and cropping. Much of the eastern Dakotas is such an area, primarily under crop-based agriculture although grass remains an important land use. We surveyed land operators in the area on their views about motivators for land use choices. Their views are largely consistent with the economic margin viewpoint. The importance of crop output prices, crop input prices, innovations in cropping equipment and weather patterns on land use decisions grow as one moves north toward the economic margin. Land in more highly sloped areas is more sensitive to crop prices and crop insurance policies. Consistent with human capital theory, older operators are generally less responsive to factors that affect land use. Those renting more land, being more exposed to market forces, are more responsive. As farm size increases, respondents declared higher land use sensitivity to policy issues and technological innovations, suggesting that scale effects render land units more sensitive to land use change drivers.

Cropping pattern changes diminish agroecosystem services in North and South Dakota, USA

“…Ascribing the changing crop patterns to a single factor, or even a series of factors, is made even more difficult by the fact that more than 90% of land in North and South Dakota is owned by private citizens (Vincent, Hanson, & Argueta, ). Due to the sheer volume of private citizens making these decisions, the motivations for cropping pattern changes are incredibly varied and reflect the nature of each citizen's specific circumstances (Auch et al., ; Sweikert & Gigliotti, ; Wang et al., ). Thus, a framework for describing these land use changes must also include postharvest (i.e., economic) and social factors (G × E × M × P × S; Figure ).…”

“…As farm size increases and landowners age, single landowners (or families) often cannot manage the entire farm, which is a contributing factor to a nationwide report that found 54% of cropland was operated by renters in 2014 (Bigelow, Borchers, & Hubbs, ). These renters do not have a family tie or connection to the land that the owners do and, in many cases, are less interested in long‐term benefits of multifunctional land management and more influenced by market prices in cropping decisions (Ranjan, Church, Floress, & Prokopy, ; Wang et al., ; Wimberly et al., ). Additionally, the larger farms, whether managed by renters or owners, are typically more influenced by federal policy and are more likely to convert land based on legislation (Wimberly et al., ).…”

“…(USDA-NASS, 2019a). Numerous factors have been identified as causes for these changes, including the expanding ethanol and biofuel markets (Feng & Babcock, 2010;Motamed, McPhail, & Williams, 2016), new adapted hybrids, a changing climate (Reitsma et al, 2015), economic incentives, environmental policy (Claassen, Cooper, & Carriazo, 2011;Mehaffey, Smith, & Van Remortel, 2012), and changing farm culture (Wang et al, 2017).…”

Studies on factors affecting the evolution of agroecosystems in the Dakotas

“…The Dakotas are part of the Northern Great Plains with substantial regional variability in soils and climate, away from any mountain or coastal effects. Wang et al (2016) argued that this region's privately owned grasslands are at economic margin and land conversions to agricultural production are subject to various market forces and physical factors such as soils and climate.…”

“…Almost 670,000 acres of grasslands were converted to corn/soy cultivation in these states between 2006 and 2011(Wright & Wimberley 2013). Past economic analyses suggest that several factors drive grassland conversions in the PPR including commodity prices, soil quality(Rashford et al 2010;Wang et al 2016), neighborhood croppingdensity, technology and crop insurance policies(Wang et al 2016). Incentive-based land retirement policies exist to motivate the PPR's private landowners to conserve their grasslands.Acquiring conservation easements is a key policy tool of the U.S.…”