Thursday, March 20, 2008

National Agriculture Day/Spring Begins

Kentucy Farming Statistics

Kentucky has 83,000 farms ranking the state fourth in the nation in number of farms. Texas is first with 229,000, Missouri is second with 104,500, Iowa is third with 88,400.

Kentucky farm sales divide farms into five categories. 51,000 farms had sales of $1000-$9,999. 25,000 farms had sales of $10,000-$99,999. 4,300 farms had sales of $100,000-$249,999.1,500 farms had sales of $250,000-$499,999. 1,200 farms had sales of $500,000 or more.

Total farmland in Kentucky is 13.7 million acres. Farmland accounts for 54% of Kentucky's approximate 25.4 million acres.

Corn for grain production was estimated at 175.4 million bushels, up 16% from the 2006 crop and the largest corn production on record. The previous high was 173.3 million bushels in 2004. Yield per acre was down but more land was planted in corn last year which accounted for 1.36 million acres of corn.

Drought conditions hurt the Soybean production in 2006 with the crop production being down 53%. The crop was estimated at 28.2 million bushels making it the smallest crop in eight years. Yeild per acre was down by 18 bushels to an average of 26 bushels per acre.Total acreage harvest also declined by 290,000 acres to an estimated 1.08 million acres.

Burley tobacco porduction was estimated at 154.0 million pounds, the largest production since the tobacco buyout in 2004. Yield was down by 100 pounds per acre but still brought in 2,000 pounds per acre. Harvested acreage totaled 77,000 acres.

Dark fire-cured tobacco production totaled 24.8 million pounds, up 14% from the previous year.

Dark air-cured tobacco production was 11.8 million pounds, unchanged since last year.

Alfalfa hay production was down 48% due to the drought as well as other hay production which was down 32%.

**Statistics provided by the Hopkinsville-Christian County Chamber of Commerce.

1 comment:

Jeff Noble said...

I read through your entry today and it took me back to my days as a little kid eating breakfast which we did every morning before heading off to school - or work for the adults. Being raised in the big city - well, really in the far edge of the "big city" in almost rural southern Jefferson County - all that sort of language like you used today didn't mean all that much to me. My grandfather was a Union carpenter and my grandmother was a political agitator when she wasn't being a housewife.

But, as my grandmother's parents and brothers and sisters were almost all involved in farming of some nature - mostly tobacco and cattle - although none on a big basis, we listened each morning on the WAVE 3 Morning Report to Jack Crowner. He'd go through all those markets from Chicago and the big-timers to all the little stock markets then scattered throughout Kentucky. The closest ones to where I lived were the Bullitt County Stockyards about ten miles away, which only closed a few years ago, to the big granddaddy of them all in downtown Louisville, the Bourbon Stock Yards, about 13 miles away and now home to the Home of the Innocents Childrens Home. After listening to Mr. Crowner on the TV, we'd hear Barney Arnold repeat it all over again on the 50,000 Watt Clear Channel Voice of WHAS Radio 840, which was also then home to the Adolph Rupp show and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

For you today's entry was simply an update of today's news. For me it was a travel back in time. Thanks for the revisit.