Agriculture is a big part of Warren County.
At Friday morning's edition of the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry's Eggs and Issues series, the Warren County Future Ag Task Force explained what agriculture really means locally.
According to George Wilcox, Warren County Penn State Cooperative Extension office director and acting dairy agent, there is more than $20 million in agriculture value in Warren County.
"The bulk of it is milk," he said.
Of the $20 million, animal-oriented agriculture accounts for more than $15 million.
Showing a chart of the past 20 years depicting the amount acreage dedicated to farms in the county, Wilcox said, "If you look at the past two decades, farm numbers have stabilized."
Despite the large presence of the agriculture locally, he noted, "Agriculture doesn't have huge job numbers."
"It doesn't take a whole lot of people to grow corn," he added.
Although agriculture is not the biggest job sector, the industry is responsible for circulating money in the local economy.
Farmers spent approximately $4,000 per cow per year. This money goes into the economy in the form of purchasing feed from the local mill, paying for services from a local veterinarian or having a local mechanic fix equipment.
"If you add a cow to Warren County, you add about 4,000 bucks to the economy. If you lose a cow, you lose the same amount," Wilcox said.
Local dairy farmers produce about 77 million pounds of milk each year, two-thirds of which is sent outside the county.
In addition to sparking the economy with purchases and paying for services, farmers and other agricultural industry proprietors contribute largely to the real estate tax rolls.
"The biggest real estate bill in the county goes to a timber owner," Wilcox said, adding that 30 percent of real estate taxes collected by the school district come from land dedicated to agriculture.
John Hagberg spoke on behalf of the task force and explain the origin of the group.
He said the task force began with the idea coming from Penn State University in 2004. By 2005, the task force was up and moving, collecting information and data from local farmers.
"We actually sat down and interviewed 73 farmers," Hagberg said.
The result revealed one important fact "agriculture in Warren County is alive and well," he added.
With a mission to educate consumers, producers and to market the local agricultural industry, the task force has reached out into the community by sponsoring ag tours, holding continuing education classes for farmers and getting into the schools to teach ag.
"This has been a tough fight. The school curriculum is very crowded," Hagberg said.
In support of local agriculture, he encouraged the crowd to "thank a farmer" and visit a farm to learn about what is being produced.
"We have to educate ourselves and educate the people coming in," he added.
In addition to learning about agricultural, those who attended the program were treated to a breakfast made entirely of food produced within a 100-mile radius of Warren.
