Economic Comparison of Land Utilization among Cultivated Land, Grassland and Forest Land in Mountainous Area : The factors of development and location of cow-calf farming

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  • 山村地帯における耕・草・林地の経済的土地利用 : 肉用牛繁殖経営の立地と定着要因
  • サンソン チタイ ニ オケル コウ クサ リンチ ノ ケイザイテキ トチ リヨ

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The location of cow-calf ranches in Japan moved from general farm villages to mountain villages or far distant villages from the central market for last twenty years, because of the low income of getting into the ranching business. Cow-calf ranches in Takane village in mountainous area of Gifu Prefecture were investigated for their management and land utilization, in order to analyze the factor of development of cow-calf farming. The results obtained are summarized as follows. 1. There are three types of land utilization in mountainous land, range, pasture and artificial forest. Range type brings the least return of all types. Return to pasture is less than to artificial forest, but that will be more than return to artificial forest in the near future, because price of calf shows an upward trend compared with price of timber. 2. The cultivated lands in Takane village are used as paddy fields for rice and upland fields for forage crops. As the village is high elevation and the temperature is low, rice yield per hectare is less and instable. Income productivity of forage crop is nearly equal to that of rice, but its productivity of forage crop will be higher than that of rice with the development of cow-calf farming in the near future. 3. Return to cnltivated land used as forage product is more than to pasture. But income productivity of labor of forage crop is lower than that of grazing in pasture. The most profitable land utilization by linear programing was combination of pasture and cultivated land used as forage product. We conclude that the cow-calf farming in the mountainous area will develop on the basis of forage product in the cutivated lands and grazing in pasture. Today, ranges are basic to the cow-calf farming in Takane village. In the future, their ranges should be changed into pastures to get more return to grassland. It is then very important the subject of securing finances for grassland establishment.

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