The 2014 Farm Gate Values have been completed for Grady County and it shows just how hard the drought we experienced last summer hit row crop producers in this county. The total value for Farm Gate was $ 161,255,657. This is down over 16 million from 2013. The bulk of this loss was in the row crop sector dropping from nearly $44 million to under $30 million this year. This was caused by a combination of the extreme drought Grady County experienced in 2014 which caused yields to be much lower on all major commodities in addition to the lower commodity prices that farmers received for their goods in previous years.
Cotton still remains the leader of row crops for Grady County bringing in well over $16 million in value with peanuts at a very distant second with $4.5 million and corn a close third with $3.95 million.
The vegetables that are produced in Grady County also took a hit last year dropping from over $21 million in value for 2013 to over $15 million for 2014. Tomatoes and Peppers are two of the largest vegetables grown in the county followed by Eggplants, Peas and Beans.
The drought also affected the 3,370 acres of pecans that are grown in this county. This dropped pecan production down by $1 million in value.
Poultry remains fairly steady at 38 million dollars for 2014. Nevertheless, several new Broiler, Breeder and Pullet houses are being built this year. So this area should increase in value over the next couple of years.
On a brighter side, with the high prices of livestock at this time the livestock sector of Farm Gate was up almost $5 million to over $20 million in value. With approximately 10,000 head of beef cows and nearly 8,000 head of stockers taking advantage of the high cattle market in 2014, is what contributed to this increase of 5 million dollars.
While one of the largest sectors of this industry remains to be the ornamental portion with a value of nearly $40 million.