What Are The Types Of Commercial Farming?

Nowadays, farming has become one of the most important ways of how to supply healthy and high-quality food to a large number of people. There are a few types of farming that concentrate on traditional values of farming, and others that produce food to sell it. For example, commercial farming is all about growing crops for profitable reasons. There are few types of commercial farming so the question is what are the types of commercial farming?

Commercial agriculture, also known as agribusiness, is a type of farming in which crops are raised and livestock are raised to sell the products on the market to get money. Commercial farms are huge farms and a lot of capital is invested.

Commercial farming is all about growing a wide variety of crops and the rearing of animals for raw materials, food, or export for profitable reasons. Commercial farming needs to be very efficient and practiced on a large scale to achieve the economy of scale. There are a few types of commercial farming that specialize in various fields of agriculture.

What Is Commercial Farming?

As I mentioned earlier, commercial farming is a type of farming where crops are grown and livestock are raised to sell those products on the market to make money. In this type of farming large-scale crops are grown, using modern technologies and techniques, machinery irrigation methods, and chemical fertilizers as well.

One of the main characteristics of commercial farming is that high doses of modern inputs are used for higher productivity such as yielding varieties, insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers, and much more. Commercial farming is increasingly being taken up and practiced because more and more people partake in it as a lucrative business venture.

Commercial farming, also known as agribusiness, has become the main driver and influencer of the global agriculture industry due to a lot of capital, manpower, and land being invested in it. However, there are some concerns about commercial farming due to the use of fertilizers, insecticides, weed killers, and pesticides during farming.

What Are The Types Of Commercial Farming? 

Dairy Farming

Dairy farming, as the name suggests, is a type of commercial farming that provides milk and milk products. That being said, these commercial farms are solely used to rear cattle, which produce the milk used to make other dairy products for sale.

For example, there are some countries such as Italy where there is a donkey reared to produce an alternative source of milk for infants. However, there are other animals farmed for dairies such as goats, camels, and sheep as well.

Grain Farming

Grain farming is a type of commercial farming where grains such as corn, barley, and wheat are grown for human consumption and exports. It is important to say that grain farming is highly mechanized and requires sufficient amounts of land, machinery, farmers, and types of equipment. This type of commercial farming is seasonal and outdoor, meaning farmers are very busy during the planting and harvesting seasons.

Plantation Farming

One must mention that this type of commercial farming is a highly sensitive type of farming, as it used to be practiced during colonial and slavery periods.

There have been farms in America and its colonies that used enforced slave labor to grow and harvest cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco, and other farm products on their large farms for trade and export. Nowadays, plantation farming is still active, but instead of using forced slave labor, workers are paid low wages, which allows them to continue working in such plantations.

Livestock Ranching

Livestock ranching is the type of commercial farming where farmers raise livestock animals for their meat products. The most commonly reared animals in livestock ranching are cattle and sheep, but on some farms, you might also find pigs and chickens reared in large numbers as well.

It is important to mention that livestock ranching is the primary source of beef, poultry, and pork meats available in most major urban markets. The top producers of beef in the world are the United States, Brazil, and the European Union, accounting for about 47% of the world’s beef.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Mediterranean agriculture, as the name suggests, is a type of commercial farming primarily practiced in the Mediterranean countries. The climate in such areas is perfect and allows for growing certain crops such as grapes, figs, dates, and olives. The great thing about it is that the climate also supports horticulture, processing vegetables, and flowers among other crops.

Mixed Crop and Livestock Farming

Mixed crop and livestock farming is the type of commercial farming where there are both crops and livestock farmed in the same piece of land. That being said, the crops can be grown to feed the animals, and the animals sold for profit. Also, it is important to mention that animal waste can be used to grow crops. Both crops and livestock live and are farmed side-by-side all year around.

Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming, also known as truck farming, is a type of commercial farming where crops that are high in demand are grown such as apples, lettuce, cherries, and asparagus as well.

What Are the Characteristics Of Commercial Farming?

Large-scale Production

It is important to mention that commercial farming sees both livestock and crops produced in large numbers. Because of this, it requires a lot of lands, advanced technology, and expertise to meet the expected production targets or goals.

A Lot Of Capital Is Invested

Commercial farming requires a lot of investment before it is started, therefore it implies that it requires a lot of capital to get it up and running. This capital is being used to purchase farm materials such as seedlings or seeds, a wide variety of fertilizers and pesticides, machinery, the farm itself, and in paying for the expenses incurred such as water and electricity bills. Farmers pay for labor and expertise as well.

The Use of High Yielding Varieties

The practice of commercial farming is specific because it uses high doses of modern technologies and techniques, and high yielding varieties of seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and weed killers as well. The farmers use it to obtain higher production, but the bad thing is that it has detrimental effects on environmental sustainability.

Producing For Sale

One of the main characteristics of commercial farming is that it is produced for sale as opposed to other forms of agriculture where people farm for their use only. Commercial agriculture produces thousands of acres of products such as cocoa, bananas, rice, sugarcane, tea, and much more. These products are harvested and sold, mainly as exports to other countries.

Heavy Machinery and Human Labor

One must mention that commercial farming requires large supplies of both skilled and unskilled labor. Skilled labor in commercial labor comes from professionals, and unskilled labor sometimes tends to exploit immigrants and persons who live in absolute poverty.

Commercial agriculture also requires heavy machinery such as diggers, trailed sprayers, plows, planters, and harvesters. These machines are used to meet the targets and goals in time, as well as meet the skills of the system of production.

Agricultural Practice Done in a Large Area

Commercial farming involves different agricultural practices within the same parcel of land or region, but it can also involve large scale farming of one type of agricultural practice such as beef farming, or dairy farming in one region or large piece of land.

For example, the vast farms of tea in India and Kenya, the coffee plantations in Brazil and India, banana production in Uganda, beef production in the United States, and much more. The degree of area coverage may vary from one region to another.

It Is Done all Year Round

It is important to mention that commercial farming is unique as the farmers can irrigate the land and keep the farm systems active all year round. Farmers don’t rely on the rains or natural supplies as ordinary farmers do since they have advanced technologies, machines, and much more to have their crops sustained throughout.

What Is Commercial Farming 

As I mentioned earlier, some of the most famous and the biggest examples of commercial farming are the coffee plantations in Brazil and India, banana production in Uganda, sugarcane farms in Indonesia and Mexico, beef production in the United States and so much more.