Celebrate National Agriculture Week March 22-28

Consider this: just about everything we eat, wear, and use comes from American agriculture. That’s why we celebrate agriculture’s importance in daily life as part of National Agriculture Week March 22-28.

Pulse Multimedia and our sponsors encourage everybody to understand how food and fiber products are produced. We salute the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy. We appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe, abundant, and affordable products.

The American farmer feeds more than 165 people. That’s a dramatic increase from 25 people back in 1960. Agriculture is our nation’s number one export, making it vitally important in sustaining a healthy economy.

County Extension Agent Sherry Sullivan provided The Pulse with agriculture data for Polk County from the U.S.D.A. There are 793 farms in Polk County. The average size of each farm is 177 acres. Farmland in Polk County totals 140,210 acres. The net cash income per farm average is $78,142. The total market value of agriculture products sold in Polk County is $158,999,000.

Here’s the breakdown of livestock inventory in Polk County: Broilers and other meat-type chickens 5,842,390; cattle and calves 37,916; goats 674; horses and ponies 940; layers 104,738; pullets 267,218; and sheep and lambs 352.

Here’s the breakdown of top crops in acreage for Polk County: forage (hay/haylage) 27,415; vegetables harvested 7; land in berries 4; and blueberries 4.

National Agriculture Week March 22-28 is a great time to be grateful for American and Polk County Agriculture!

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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