This research would be incomplete without a description of the presence of spousalrun dairy farms in the U.S. A spousal-run dairy refers to a dairy that is managed by two operators that are married to one another. There is a historic assumption that many dairy farms are run by spouses, however, this research finds that trends in spousal commercial dairy operations does differ greatly by state . For some states, like Wisconsin, New York, and Idaho, a significantly large share of commercial dairy farms was being run by spouses, with over 40% of commercial dairy farms in each state being spousal run. In California, 31% of commercial dairy farms are run by spouses, but New Mexico had relatively few commercial dairies run by spouses and a decrease from 15% to 13% from 2012 to 2017. A large share of female core operators of commercial dairies was married to a principal operator in 2012 and 2017 . In 2017 Texas had the largest share with 80% of female core operators married to a principal operator and then Idaho and Wisconsin both had more than 75%. New Mexico had the smallest share of female core operators married to a principal operator with 48%, but that remains a significant share. Next, flood and drain hydroponics age of commercial dairy operators has been a point of discussion for because of the increasing age of dairy farm operators. Table 5.9 presents the share of operators by gender and age group for the Census year and state.
Across all state the largest share of female operators was in the less than 50 years old age group with all states following a similar trend of a decreasing share of younger operators and increase in the share of older operators. For male operators the largest share was the less than 50 age group also had the largest share. There was a significant share of male operators in the larger age group categories across all states with every state, but Wisconsin, have at least 10% of operators being male and over the age of 66. Finally, previous literature suggested that women may be more likely to adopt sustainable-minded practices. Regarding organic production, this seems to be true. In 2017, most organic commercial dairies have at least one female core operator, except in New Mexico for which only 17% of organic commercial dairies have at least one female core operator . The share of organic commercial dairies with at least one female operator is larger than the overall share of commercial dairies with at least one female operator. There was an increase in the share of female core operators that operated an organic commercial from 2007 to 2017 , but this was also with the addition of the fourth operator. There has been a slight increase in the share of organic commercial dairies across all states, but in 2017 all states had less than 15% of commercial dairies with organic production .
Organic dairies do tend to have smaller herd sizes, in general and more milk sales revenue per cow. Organic commercial dairies have a larger share of female core operators than commercial dairies overall for all states, except New Mexico. In 2017, organic commercial dairies report at least a 30% or more share of female core operators, except New Mexico which only had an 8% share of female core operators . In every state, except New York, there was an increase in the share of female core operators that manage organic commercial dairy. The share of female core operators that manage an organic dairy decreased by 28% in New York but increased by 66% in Idaho.Next, I turn to explore the relationship between the farm size and gender demographics of farm operators and spousal-run operation. COA is panel data, meaning that it is both times series and cross sectional in nature. For my analysis, I utilize a log-linear model with fixed effects in order account for cross-state and cross-time differences. The farm size variables, of the individual farm at time , are the logged dependent variables including Cowsit number of milk cows , TMDit total sales revenue from dairy or milk, and TVPit total value of production. I utilize farm-level operator characteristics variables including a binary variable for the presence of a female core operator , the share female operator on the individual farm , and a binary variable that indicates a spousal run farm variable .
Furthermore, I included a variable to control for a relationship between the age demographics of operators on farm size. MaxAgeit describes the maximum age listed by any given core operator on an individual commercial dairy. Table 5.13 shows the list of variables use in regressions and their corresponding definition. In addition, αi and λt represent the state fixed effect and the time fixed effect, respectively, and uit is an error term. Xit represents a vector of farm operator characteristics and farm management characteristics. logFarmSizeit represents a vector of the logged farm size variables listed above.Equations 1 is the regression equation used to show the relationship between the presence of a female operator and farm size, accounting for age, state, and year influences on farm size. Table 5.14 shows the relative coefficients and standard errors of each regression. Concerning the number of milk cows, the presence of at least one female core operator relates to a decrease in the herd size by about 12.9%, when holding constant for age, state, and year influences on farm size. With herd size, when accounting for the presence of a female operator, the max age corresponds to an increase in the herd size by 0.5%. The presence of at least one female core operator suggests a decrease of the total value of production by 31% and all milk or dairy sales by about 13.4% as well. So, across all farm size measures, there are relatively similar results.A one-year increase of the maximum age of any core operator relates to an increase in the total value of production by about 0.7%.A water well is a hole, shaft, or excavation used for the purpose of extracting ground water from the subsurface. Water may flow to the surface naturally after excavation of the hole or shaft. Such a well is known as a flowing artesian well. More commonly, water must be pumped out of the well. Most wells are vertical shafts, but they may also be horizontal or at an inclined angle. Horizontal wells are commonly used in bank filtration, where surface water is extracted via recharge through river bed sediments into horizontal wells located underneath or next to a stream. The oldest known wells, Qanats, are hand-dug horizontal shafts extending into the mountains of the old Persian empire in present-day Iran. Some wells are used for purposes other than obtaining ground water. Oil and gas wells are examples of this. Monitoring wells for groundwater levels and groundwater quality are other examples. Still other purposes include the investigation of subsurface conditions, shallow drainage, artificial recharge, indoor vertical farming and waste disposal. In this publication we focus on vertical water-production wells commonly used to supply water for domestic, municipal, and agricultural uses in California. Our purpose is to provide readers with some basic information about water wells to help them understand principles of effective well construction when they work with a professional driller, consultant, or well servicing agency for well drilling and maintenance.The location of a well is mainly determined by the well’s purpose. For drinking and irrigation water-production wells, groundwater quality and long-term groundwater supply are the most important considerations. The hydrogeological assessment to determine whether and where to locate a well should always be done by a knowledgeable driller or professional consultant. The water quality criteria to use for drinking water wells are the applicable local or state drinking water quality standards. For irrigation wells, the primary chemical parameters of concern are salinity and boron and the sodium-adsorption ratio. Enough ground water must be available to meet the pumping requirements of the wells.
For large municipal and agricultural production wells, pumping rate requirements range from about 500 to 4,000 gallons per minute . Small- and medium-sized community water systems may depend on water wells that produce from 100 to 500 gpm. Individual homes’ domestic wells may meet their needs with as few as 1 to 5 gpm, depending on local regulations. To determine whether the desired amount of ground water is available at a particular location and whether it is of appropriate quality, drillers and groundwater consultants rely on their prior knowledge of the local groundwater system, experience in similar areas, and a diverse array of information such as land surface topography, local vegetation, rock fracturing , local geology, groundwater chemistry, information on thickness, depth, and permeability of local aquifers from existing wells, groundwater levels, satellite or aerial photographs, and geophysical measurements. In most cases, the well location is further limited by property ownership, the need to keep surface transportation of the pumped ground water to a minimum, and access restrictions for the drilling equipment. When locating a well, one should also consider the proximity of potential sources of contamination such as fuel or chemical storage areas, nearby streams, sewer lines, and leach fields or septic tanks. The presence of a significant barrier between such potential sources and the well itself is very important for the protection of the well.Once the well location has been determined, a preliminary well design is completed. For many large production wells, a test hole will be drilled before well drilling to obtain more detailed information about the depth of water-producing zones, confining beds, well production capabilities, water levels, and groundwater quality. The final design is subject to site-specific observations made in the test hole or during the well drilling. The overall objective of the design is to create a structurally stable, long-lasting, efficient well that has enough space to house pumps or other extraction devices, allows ground water to move effortlessly and sediment-free from the aquifer into the well at the desired volume and quality, and prevents bacterial growth and material decay in the well . A well consists of a bottom sump, well screen, and well casing surrounded by a gravel pack and appropriate surface and borehole seals . Water enters the well through perforations or openings in the well screen. The latter is necessary when a well taps multiple aquifer zones, to ensure that screened zones match the aquifer zones from which water will be drawn. In alluvial aquifers, which commonly contain alternating sequences of coarse material and fine material, the latter construction method is much more likely to provide clean, sediment-free water and is more energy efficient than the installation of a continuous screen. Hardrock wells, on the other hand, are constructed very differently. Often, the borehole of a hardrock well will stand open and will not need to be screened or cased unless the hard rock crumbles easily.The purpose of the screen is to keep sand and gravel from the gravel pack out of the well while providing ample water flow to enter the casing. The screen should also be designed to allow the well to be properly developed . Slotted, louvered, and bridge-slotted screens and continuous wire wrap screens are the most common types. Slotted screens provide poor open area. They are not well suited for proper well development and maintenance, and are therefore not recommended. Wire wrap screens or pipe-based wire wrap screens give the best performance. The additional cost of wire wrap screens can be offset if you only install screen sections in the most productive formations along the borehole. The purposes of the blank well casing between and above the well screens are to prevent fine and very fine formation particles from entering the well, to provide an open pathway from the aquifer to the surface, to provide a proper housing for the pump, and to protect the pumped ground water from interaction with shallower ground water that may be of lower quality. The annular space between the well screen, well casing, and borehole wall is filled with gravel or coarse sand . The gravel pack prevents sand and fine sand particles from moving from the aquifer formation into the well. The gravel pack does not exclude fine silt and clay particles; where those occur in a formation it is best to use blank casing sections.