Earlier this week, the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce released the 5th Edition of ‘The Impact of Agribusiness in the High Plains Trade Area’, authored by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and WTAMU faculty. Today in High Plains Ag Week we include the first in a series of discussions on the material in that publication. You can find digital copies of the publication on the homepage of amarillo.tamu.edu, and printed copies at the Amarillo Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension Center. We also introduce a new segment of High Plains Ag Week called ‘Chart Challenge’.
Impact of Agribusiness in the High Plains Trade Area
The Impact of Agribusiness in the High Plains Trade Area (IAB) is a publication released every five years coinciding with the Census of Ag produced by USDA. The publication documents and measures the impact that agriculture has in a 26-county area spanning from the southern border of Parmer to Childress counties up through the entirety of the Texas Panhandle. The area covers approximately 16.5 million acres, of which 14.8 million (90%) are dedicated to agriculture.
The first figure below details the cash receipts derived from agriculture in each county in the study area. The county that derives the greatest amount of cash receipts from agriculture ($877.7 million) in the area, as well as the state, is Deaf Smith. If the area were its own state it would regularly rank first in terms of value added from fed beef, rank in the top three states annually in terms of cotton produced, rank in the top five states for sorghum production, and rank in the top fifteen states for each of dairy, corn, and wheat production.
Counties measured on an individual basis even post large numbers when compared to the rest of the state. The eight counties with the highest average agricultural ash receipts over the last five years are in the region. In order of 1-8 those counties are Deaf Smith, Hartley, Castro, Parmer, Sherman, Hansford, Dallam, and Swisher county.
Average Annual Cash Receipts* from Livestock & Crops by County
The region is a dynamic agricultural area where forward-thinking producers are continually adapting to the market and the environment. These adaptations lead to change in production values year over year. Compared to the 4th Edition of IAB, there has been significant growth in several markets. The value added from fed beef grew over the previous period by 28% to $2.4 billion annually from 2013-2017. Growth in dairy has also been significant, to the extent that over half (51.5%) of the dairy cows in Texas were located in the High Plains Trade Area from 2013-2017.
There was also change in the crop market. As producers learn to grow more with less water, the mix of crops grown has seen change. While corn maintained its position as the highest total value crop produced in the region, ensilage, hay, and cotton all grew by 44.8%, 25.7%, and 16.9%, respectively. In fact, the High Plains Trade Area was responsible for 68.9% of the ensilage, 44.5% of the corn, 29.3% of the wheat, 13.1% of the cotton, 14.3% of the sorghum, and 10% of the hay produced in the state from 2013-2017.
The table below describes the cash receipts from agriculture, and its multiplied economic impact to the region, and state.
Average Annual Agricultural Cash Receipts, High Plains Total, 2013-2017
Chart Challenge:
Chart challenge is a new segment that we hope you’ll find entertaining and enlightening. Each week we’ll introduce a chart with no heading and a clue as to what that chart represents or a place where you can find the answer to the chart’s identity for yourself. The following week we’ll announce the chart’s name on Twitter and provide some context and discussion. If you haven’t followed me on Twitter yet you can find me using @AmarilloAgEcon or click the Twitter icon on the top right of this page.
The identity of this week’s chart challenge can be found in the ‘Impact of Agribusiness in the High Plains Trade Area’ report on the home page of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Amarillo. The chart represents a trend in production agriculture on the Texas High Plains.
In the News:
Farm Progress – U.S., China move closer to trade deal despite harsh rhetoric
Upcoming Dates:
December 10 – WASDE, OCE
December 10 – Crop Production, NASS
December 10 – Armstrong County Fall Producer Meeting
December 12 – Randall County Production Ag Landowner/Tenant Program
December 19, 1:30 pm – Industrial Hemp Seminar, Lubbock Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Center
January 5-11 – The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (Register Here)
February 6-7, 2020 – Developing this Year’s Marketing Plan for Feed Grains and Cotton, Amarillo AgriLife Research & Extension Center