I recently had the opportunity to make a short presentation to a mixed audience of local farmers and their neighbors in Perry County on the value of a dairy farm to a community. The organizers requested this topic primarily for the non-farm neighbors thinking it would give them a better appreciation of what a farm brings to the community and potentially “soften” some existing and future farm-urban conflicts. Based on the comments after my brief talk it became apparent that the farmers in the audience appreciated the information as much as their neighbors, reminding us once again that agriculture has a wonderful story to tell – but we must remember to tell it! With all the current bad news in the dairy industry, everyone appreciates hearing some positive things about the important work of producing dairy foods.
What a dairy farm brings to a community can be summarized into three main categories: Prosperity, People and the Planet.
Prosperity
Every farm is first and foremost a business. Typically when we think of local businesses we think car dealerships, grocery stores, manufacturing and maybe doctors’ offices, but probably not farms. The largest industry in Pennsylvania is agriculture and the same is true in Perry and most of our 67 counties. Statewide, dairy represents almost 45% of all farm income – collectively we are big business and important to the Commonwealth’s economy.
The farm we were visiting that day milks almost 500 cows and shipped over 10 million pounds of milk last year. It is estimated that every cow generates economic value to a community of over $13,700 per cow per year. That number includes not just the value of the milk she produces, but also the value of that money rolling through the community several times. For example, all the money from all the services the farm uses stays in the community, feeding the local economy. That includes money to the vet, to the local car dealer and feed supplier, health care for family and employees, school taxes – the list is almost endless This particular farm has a list of 40 vendors they typically make payments to during a month and close to 200 vendors a year. Their total expenses last year were over 2 million dollars!
As we drive down the road and see dairy farms, think of that $13,700 economic impact that each cow represents. For a fairly typical 100-cow herd that is $1.3 million of economic impact; for a larger 300-cow herd it is $4.1 million and for a 500-cow dairy it is almost $7 million in economic impact to the community.
Dairy farms typically own a fair amount of land and in many rural communities the farms pay a large percentage of the property taxes. In a recent Pennsylvania study that compared various land uses and their respective use of tax supported services, farms and open space required from $0.02 to $0.91 per dollar of taxes paid, while residential use of services typically ranged from $1.02 to $1.48. Another reason to smile when you see a farm in your community.
The last “prosperity” or business issue is where dairy farm dollars come from and where they go. Pennsylvania produces more milk that we consume – meaning a lot of milk is exported to other parts of the country. The dollars from that exported milk comes from outside Pennsylvania and returns to our local economy to become part of that $13,700 local economic impact. Compare that to many businesses where the profits and much of the economic activity exit the community. A dairy farm is a dollar pump – pumping dollars into the local economy.
People
Dairy farms represent jobs. The 500-cow dairy we were visiting had 11 people on the payroll. In rural Perry County the estimate of dairy-related jobs is 856, and in Pennsylvania that number is over 40,000. Those are not all “on farm” jobs, but include all the dairy-related jobs such as sales and service, transportation, processing and retailing. By the way, about 85% of their income from these employees stays within a community.
Dairy farmers and their families and employees are also very involved in their communities – providing leadership and resources to many kinds of organizations and charities. We have a wonderful legacy of volunteerism in this country – and that is particularly true in our rural communities. Our rural youth who have been involved in their churches, and 4-H and FFA have tremendous leadership abilities that benefit all of society. This leadership is a true community asset.
Planet
Our third “P” is for the planet, or the environmental contributions of a dairy farm. The initial public reaction to agriculture is that we are part of the environmental problem rather than part of the solution, but that is generally not the case. Remember that land is a valuable resource to be productively used. In the case of a dairy farm, food is being produced on that land, while the alternatives could be houses, highways, or other kinds of businesses.
Farms provide huge areas for groundwater recharge because they cover large areas with very little impervious surface. Open space performs the critical function of absorbing, filtering and returning rain water to replenish ground and surface water supplies.
Today we hear a lot about carbon. A recent national newspaper article noted a scheme to plant thousands of acres of trees in the US to sequester carbon – our farms with their croplands and forests are already hard at work in that regard.
Farms are the original recyclers of nutrients and invest heavily in technology to keep those nutrients on the land. Agriculture has always been conscious of the need for effective stewardship of the land and water. Currently the dairy industry is investing heavily in not only determining our carbon footprint but also developing ways to reduce it from the cow to the consumer.
Farms provide vegetative buffers to reduce pollutant entry into waterways. Farms provide open space that we all enjoy and value in our communities. Farms provide wildlife corridors and edge effect which are important for songbirds and other field and forest species. And, farms provide nursery habitat for amphibians and birds and support diverse insect populations that are essential to many natural processes from honey production to pest control.
Before we leave these subjects of prosperity, people and the planet which are all tied to our farms and communities, we need to think of the base of all agriculture – food.
Our image of agriculture is biased by our personal experiences. I challenge each of us to be open to a changing and evolving image of agriculture. To be successful and profitable farm, the business must change as any business must change to remain viable and profitable. Recently I heard a speaker talk about three important numbers – 50, 100 and 70. His point was that within 50 years we will need 100% more food than we produce today to satisfy the world’s needs. Because of land restrictions, 70% of that additional food must come from the use of agricultural technologies. We must therefore embrace the changes needed to not only make successful businesses and neighbors, but also necessary to feed our children and grandchildren – and to keep our communities economically healthy.
Source: N Blair – PennState
