Clark County Home
Price of Progress
Change has brought cheap food to the consumer
at the cost of families losing their farms
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Agriculture has always been a major industry in Clark County. One hundred years ago, Springfield was number one in the world in the manufacturing of farm implements and equipment such as incubators for poultry. Springfield also led the world eighty years ago in the production of roses.
Clark County farms are among the most productive farms in the U.S. because of its prime soils which dominates our soil types. Our soils and rain fall pattern allows us to periodically lead the state in yield per acre for corn, soybeans and wheat. Our farmers are well educated and innovative. Agriculture is dynamic and changing rapidly. The social, political and economic environments that our farm businesses have to work within have caused many changes in the way food is produced. Our local farmers are personally affected by worldwide events that occur daily. For the consumer, change is good. Food is produced for much less than decades past. Only 11% of the consumer’s dollar goes for food compared to 30% or more just a few decades ago. Technology has allowed farmers to be very efficient. Fifty years ago my grandfather would average 13 hours to raise an acre of corn. Today, some of our farmers will average two hours an acre for corn and some produce soybeans with only one hour of labor per acre. Many harvest 2500 acres or more of yield crops. Tremendous progress has been made in raising livestock. Weaning weights in beef cattle have doubled in the past thirty years along with feed efficiencies and average daily gain. Beef cattle and swine are far leaner that a few years ago. Hogs are so lean, lard is no where to be found. Profit per head for livestock has declined to the point where most hog producers raise over 5000 head per year and poultry producer have at least a million birds. As a result, livestock auction yards are few and far apart. The marketing unit now is a semi-trailer full of beef, milk, hogs and eggs. The dairy farmer has seen new technology change his industry in may ways. Since 1900, there have been over 100 dairies in Clark County that have bottled and sold milk. Today there is one: Reiter. In 1940 there were 1769 farms that milked dairy cows. Today there is four. Milk per cow has gone from 5700 pounds per cow per year to 22,000 pounds per cow. In 1955, three of us would milk seven Jersey cows by hand; today, the newest dairy farm in Clark County will milk 200 cows per hour and two people will accomplish that. Once Springfield was called “The City of Roses”. Today, the roses are gone but the large, efficient horticulture industries have taken the place of roses. Ulery, Little Miami Flower and Meadowview Greenhouses; Berryhill, Scarff and Studebaker’s nurseries; Green Velvet sod farm among several others are very efficient horticultural business. Farmer’s fruit and vegetable markets continue to grow. The real questions are: What price are we willing to pay for cheap food? What is progress? Cheap food has resulted in the loss of family farms as we have known them or grew up on them. Cheap food has limited most farmers being competitive at farm auctions. They generally lose out to developers and investors. The last Census of Agriculture was completed in 2002. The trends are the same everywhere in America. The family farm with less than 1000 acres is rapidly declining. Large commodity farms and small farms with a niche market selling direct to consumers are both increasing. Large and small, they are still family farms. Off farm jobs in Ohio have allowed us to keep medium size farms. In the Heartland, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota have already seen the disappearance of medium (typical) size farms. The 2002 census shows that we are now losing many of them. Farming will continue to be a 100 million dollar industry in Clark County due to our innovative producers and our great natural resources. However, change will continue to be with us. I guess we call change: progress. Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Admin. and Director, OSU Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868 Updated: April 2004 |