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<br />Anixmal Agriculture Trends in Orange County <br />The Past Ten Years and into the foreseeable future <br />- Steady, continual slow decline in number of dairy producers (21 today, 48 in 1986). <br />Attributable to many factors, including declining profit margins, value of land for development, <br />lack of interest on part of succeeding generations. <br />- Decline in the number of swine producers. All feeder pig production has switched to market <br />hog production. Influenced by marketing changes and inability to adapt to current lazge volume <br />mazket conditions. <br />- Poultry production has increased in the last ten years from two to seven farms. The five new <br />farms aze contract growers producing broiler-breeder hatching eggs for one company. All the <br />new poultry producers are tobacco farmers diversifying their operations. A few more hatching <br />egg operations may possibly be added with the same company in the northern part of the county <br />on tobacco farms. Other poultry companies are unlikely to contract growers in Orange county <br />due to distance from feed mills, processing facilities, and population density in the county. <br />- Beef cattle and other livestock operation numbers have remained fairly stable with only a slight <br />decrease in the numbers of beef operations and cattle. This trend should continue as older <br />farmers retire and land values continue to rise. <br />-There has been a lazge increase in the number of small horse farms (10-20 acres) mostly through <br />subdividing lazger farms. The numbers of these farms will likely continue to slowly increase as <br />population in the region grows. <br />