Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
55 <br /> Slide #5 <br /> Producers d 1,199 Percent of farms that: Top Crops In Acres <br /> S.. Forage[haylhaylagej.all 8,330 <br /> Male 734 Have interrlet pp Soybeans for beans 3,266 <br /> Female 465 access O v Com for grain 2,752 <br /> Whea2022 D �g Tobee for grain,all 184 <br /> Age Tohacoo 164 <br /> 35 117 Farm 35-64 813 organically 2 <br /> 65 and older 469 <br /> Census: Race Sell directly to 20 Livestock Inventory(Dec 31.2022) <br /> American India NAlaska Native 11 consumers <br /> Asian B Broilers and other <br /> Black or African American 47 meat type chickens 1,082 <br /> Native Hawaiia NPacifrc lslander - Hire Cattle and calves 6,271 <br /> White 1,11D {arm labor 25 Goals 507 <br /> More than one race 23 Hogs and plus 439 <br /> Orange Horses and ponies 1,Dg0 <br /> Other characteriatca Layers 2L10,291 <br /> Are family <br /> Hispanic.Latina,Spanish grigln � farms94 Pullets 1,1pH <br /> With military servlce 90 Sheep and Iambs 1,217 <br /> Count■i New and begin nirg farmers 474 Turkeys 205 <br /> County <br /> YD A­age per farm mmiwng b May rot and In 100% m in—ing c Among munbas wr~rank can im emplayad a Der.mremild for a m inrn <br /> Summary four producere per f mmo arm.•Crop codity names may be shortened;see full names wwwne.e.usde govrgdc apnemu.per.r poabW below the <br /> line does not indWaLe rank.(D)Wltl heW to avoid dlsclos,ng data for mclividµal operations.(NA]Not aveliable.(Z)Law than half of the oalt ahorrn.{-} <br /> Represents zero. <br /> (cont'd) <br /> Jonathon Smith explained that he looked into why the percentage of "Farm organically" <br /> is only 2% and learned that there are 13 farms that responded to the survey that do organic <br /> product sales. He said Orange County is the number 1 county in North Carolina for voluntary <br /> sales of organic products. He said a lot of smaller farms are farming organically but don't <br /> complete the survey. Based on the age demographics, he said there is a unique opportunity <br /> here to mentor and engage young farmers in production agriculture and encourage them to <br /> continue. <br /> Commissioner McKee said there are only 687 farms and the net cash farm income from <br /> the last slide is concerning. He said it indicates that farming is not viable without a second <br /> source of income. <br /> Mike Ortosky, Extension Agent for Community & Rural Development, said Commissioner <br /> McKee makes a great point. He said the vast majority of household income on farms of all sizes <br /> in the United States comes from off-farm sources of income. He said this is a critical issue. <br /> Commissioner McKee said there is a small percentage of people who are able to juggle <br /> the high value crops. He said if there are 5 producers making money, adding 5 more will <br /> overwhelm the market and no one makes a profit. <br /> Mike Ortosky said part of the solution is building more market for farmers to sell their <br /> products. <br /> Commissioner McKee said more resources to help farmers with marketing and figuring <br /> out a pathway to get their products to the end point at a profitable dollar figure. <br /> Jonathon Smith said the presentation will touch on some of the things they are doing to <br /> help with this a little later. He said there are a lot of resources for farmers to plug into that <br /> County Extension can help them access. He said many Ag Summit attendees appreciate the <br /> sessions on money and helping them access markets. <br />