Topic: The Dayton Regions' Ag Empire (by the numbers)

[Jeffery]

Some gee-whiz numbers from the 2007 Census of Agriculture, which is chock-full of interesting stats on agriculture in Ohio. 

The Dayton Region apparently is a major ag center for the state, something that is perhaps overlooked.  So lets put some numbers on those "blank spaces" between the citys and towns.

Defining the Dayton Region

For the purpose of this post set, the Dayton region is:

The Dayton & Springfield MSA counties:

Montgomery
Preble
Miami
Green
Clark

...and the counties north towards Lima and Indian & Grand Lakes:

Darke
Shelby
Champagne
Logan
Auglaize
Mercer

(since they seem to have traditionally had social and economic and media connections to Dayton)

Cash Value

The big number.  Two types of cash value of farm products (for 2007):

Crops:  $869.4 Million:  21.15% of the state total
Livestock & Poultry:  $1.2 billion(!),  39.7% of the state total

Together these account for 28.6% of the cash value of Ohio ag production.  A whopping $2 billion (rounded).

The top counties for cash value:

Darke:  $479.8M
Mercer:  $535.2M
Miami:  $175.4M
Auglaize:  $138.6M
Clark: $137M (which is a suprise since this is "Sprinfield & Vicinity", an urbanized county)

Production Expenses

Cash Value is nice big number, but there are production expenses:  feed, fertilizer, operating costs, etc.   This comes up to $1.5 Billion for the Dayton region.  This presumably represents quite a market for ag suppliers of various sorts.


The top production expense counties are, not suprisingly, the top ones for cash value:

Mercer:  $409.8 M
Darke: $343.2 M
Clark: $145.3 M
Auglaize: $104.5 M
Preble: $95.1 M (unexpected since the cash value of production is not in the top five counties).

Offsetting this are Federal Government transfer payments of various sorts: crop subsidies and crop insurance payments.  This accounts for $40.3 M for the region for 2007.

Net Farm Income

After expenses of various sorts there is the net farm income.  This amounts to $561.3 M for the region.

The top net income counties are:

Darke: $149.9 M
Mercer: $136.9 M
Shelby: $44.4M
Auglaize: $42.9M
Clark: $36.3M

Next, a quick look at farm operators and employment.

[ColDayMan]

Impressive work!

[Jeffery]

Thanks! 

Seems like this ag economy is under-appreciated.  Mercer and Darke Counties seem to be big farm economy powerehouses.

[ColDayMan]

Who would've thought...

[UrbanSurfin]

Mercer and Darke are No. 1 and 2 in the state, and livestock/poultry (eggs) are the big reason. Wayne County is a distant No. 3, also with a mix of livestock (mostly dairy and beef) and row crops. There's another big factor in the ag economy: processing. The $133 million in Holmes County cash value for farm products, for example, is BC. What is BC? Before Cheese! When the milk is processed into cheese, it is worth a lot more, and creates jobs.

Ohioans spend $43 billion a year on food (at home and restaurants -- doesn't include institutional meals), and an estimated 3 percent of that is grown and processed locally. Local Food is a great economic development strategy.

[dmerkow]

There are a lot of big well off German families in Mercer and Darke counties. I'd be curious to compare this w/ Toledo which also has a pretty nice ag hinterland (more veggies I'd guess).

[Scrabble]

Great thread/work.

[UrbanSurfin]

Behind No. 1 and No. 2 Mercer and Darke, here's the NW Ohio top ag-county rundown, based on 2007 farm receipts: Hardin #4; Paulding #6; Putnam #7; Auglaize #8; Wyandot #11; Fulton #12; and Shelby #15.