十勝平野における酪農の発展過程

抄録

Dairying has the most complex structure of production among many branches of agricultural production, that is, the processes from milk production to consumption are differentiated into many technical phases. When there exists the relation of functional control among each phase, it is natural that farmer's dairy farming is subject to the influence of controller in charge of processing phase. Then, the author analyzed the forming process of dairy regions in Tokachi Plains not only from the view point of changes in agriculture, but also from functional relation between the farmers and milk processing companies.
Dairy regions in Tokachi Plains were effectively formed by the subsidy policy such as the “Takusyoku Plan” as a development project in Hokkaido in days prior to World War II. In days after World War II, dairy production in these regions has experienced a remarkable increase. This expansion is indicated by the increase of many indices of dairy production. In 1967 the number of dairy cows reached 74, 314 heads, which was 11.3 times as many as 7, 577 in 1950, and the number of dairy farmer was 2.3 times as many as 3, 776 in 1950, increased 8, 763 farms (that is, the number of milch cows per one farm increased from 2.0 to 8.5), and also the volume of dairy production expanded to 145, 169 tons, was 13.5 times as much as 10, 700 tons in 1950.
In the process of remarkable expansion in postwar days, dairy regions were differentiated into two producing areas. In the peripherial part of Tokachi Plains, many farmers keep dairy cows and the number of dairy cows per farm is relatively large, and the foundation of farm economy is laid on milch cows keeping, beans and sugar beet culture. In contrast with this, in the central part of Tokachi Plains, bean culture and sugar beet culture are dominant, the emphasis of farming is laid on bean culture with subsidiary milch cows keeping on smaller scale.