{"id":408,"date":"2021-04-16T09:11:04","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/?p=408"},"modified":"2025-02-24T15:57:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T20:57:52","slug":"georgia-agriculture-awareness-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/georgia-agriculture-awareness-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Agriculture Awareness Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Did you know that agriculture is the number one industry in Georgia? Agriculture and related industries represent over 359,220 jobs and over $70.1 billion dollars in output to Georgia\u2019s economy. There are over 42,439 farms in Georgia on 9.9 million acres of property. This week (March 22-26th<\/sup>) was selected as the Georgia Agriculture Awareness Week, with National Agriculture Awareness Day on March 23rd<\/sup>. In celebration of agriculture industries in Georgia, I wanted to share some industry facts with you this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The top agricultural industry in the state of Georgia is broiler (meat chicken) production, with an economic contribution of $22.9 billion. The poultry industry provides over 100,000 jobs to Georgia residents and each poultry farm can feed 22,000 people per day. Total poultry production for the state is around 7 billion pounds of chicken annually. In Georgia, 3 of every 4 counties are involved with poultry production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second industry in Georgia is our row and forage crops, representing 20% of our total commodities or an economic impact of $12.8 billion. Row crop industries provide over 88,000 jobs and $12.8 billion to the state economy. Our top crops include cotton (37.9%), peanuts (25.5%), corn (12.4%), hay (11.8%), and silage (3%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our third industry, and one near and dear to my heart, is the livestock and aquaculture industries. This commodity has an economic impact of over $8.4 billion and provides jobs to 34,000 people. Our livestock industry is primarily focused on beef cows (33.6%), dairy (20.9%), horses (16.8%), and beef stockers (8%). Other segments included in this are honeybees, fisheries, small ruminants (sheep and goats), and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming in fourth place is Georgia vegetable production at over $2.6 billion in economic impact. The Georgia vegetable industry produces over 33 different types of vegetable including but not limited to watermelon (15.3%), sweet corn (12.3%), onions (11.3%), bell peppers (10.8%), and cucumbers (6.4%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There are a few other industries that are essential to Georgia agriculture. Ornamental horticulture contributes $7.9 billion to the economy each year and provides 62,000 jobs. Of this, 47.6% is greenhouse production, 18.2% are field nurseries, 17.8% are container nurseries, 12.6% is turfgrass, and 3.9% is other production types. Georgia forestry and timber industries provide over 65,000 jobs and $14.1 billion in economic impact to the state. Segments of the industry include timber (81.2%), pine straw (12%), and other (6.2%).  Our fruit and nut industries are worth $2 billion to the state economy with pecans (42.4%), blueberries (35.5%), and peaches (11.6%) leading the charge. Finally, agritourism and other is a growing category with a Farm Gate Value of $966.15 million. Things that are included here are government payments (59.3%), crop insurance (17%), ag and nature-based tourism (13%), and hunting leases (10.6%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Agriculture is an essential industry in our state and will undoubtably continue to be so for many years to come. What industry are you most interested in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Questions or comments can be directed to uge3181@uga.edu<\/a> or 706-359-3233.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that agriculture is the number one industry in Georgia? Agriculture and related industries represent over 359,220 jobs and over $70.1 billion dollars in output to Georgia\u2019s economy. There are over 42,439 farms in Georgia on 9.9 million acres of property. This week (March 22-26th) was selected as the Georgia Agriculture Awareness Week, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}