Today on HPAW, we discuss land use in the 26-county area surrounding Amarillo, in a preview of the Impact of Agribusiness in the High Plains Trade Area report.
Every five years the USDA conducts the Census of Agriculture. You probably remember periodically receiving those surveys from the USDA asking for details on production, your land use, etc. That data is incredibly valuable to the agricultural economics profession because it is where some of the key data we use comes from.
In conjunction with the USDA’s Census of Agriculture, our office along with faculty from Texas A&M University in College Station, and West Texas A&M University in Canyon, have historically produced a report called ‘The Impact of Agribusiness in the High Plains Trade Area’. The report details regional inventories of livestock, the value of agricultural production, payroll to farm, ranch and agribusiness workers, and provides an overall picture of the impact agriculture has on our area’s economy. You can find previous versions of the report here. We’ll be releasing the newest version of the report this year, so I thought we’d provide a preview of some of the information we’ll be providing.
The High Plains Trade Area – Land Use
The high plains trade area, as we define it, consists of a 26-county area in which the communities use Amarillo as their main center of trade. These counties are shown in the map below.
This area encompasses all of Texas A&M AgriLife District 1, Parmer, Castro, and Swisher counties in District 2, and Childress county which is in District 3. While it is clear driving through our area that we are a dedicated production agricultural region, the breakdown of land use is very interesting.
Of the 26-counties, which cover approximately 16.5 million acres, 90% of the land is dedicated to some form of agricultural production. Of the land dedicated to agriculture, over half (9.1 million acres) is pastureland. The balance is taken up by irrigated cropland at approximately 1.4 million acres, and non-irrigated (dry land) crop land at approximately 4.3 million acres.
The economic value from the commodities produced on this land is incredible, and will be discussed in depth in the Impact of Agribusiness in the High Plains Trade Area. At the regional aggregate level, the average annual cash receipts from production alone, prior to considering the multiplied effects of money circulating through the economy is $5.6 billion.
Upcoming Dates
September 23 – Crop Progress, NASS
September 24 – Cotton Ginnings, NASS
September 27 – Hogs and Pigs, NASS
September 27 – Dairy Margin Coverage Signup Deadline (**DATE CHANGE AS OF 9/20/19**)
September 30 – Grain Stocks
October 4 – U.S. Employment Data
January – Expected Tyson Holcomb plant reopening