Contract Production and Vertical Integration in Farming, 1960 and 1970

Aggregate changes in forms of vertical coordination in agriculture proceed slowly even when striking changes occur in individual farm commodities. Judgment estimates of the proportion of total farm production under some form of either contracting or vertical integration show an increase from about 19 to 22 percent of all farm output from 1960 to 1970, a shift of 3 percentage points. More increase in these forms of coordination took place in livestock than in crop products, especially in fed cattle, eggs, and turkeys.