New Tool Released to Calculate the Value of Pennsylvania Dairy

Nov 04, 2019

With statewide dairy production and associated businesses contributing more than $12 billion annually to Pennsylvania’s economy, dairy provides tremendous value to local communities across the Commonwealth. The Center for Dairy Excellence recently launched an online tool to help individuals calculate the value of dairy in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania.

“Dairy businesses create more than 52,000 jobs and spend about 85 percent of their income locally, so our communities are stronger because of the many contributions dairy farms provide,” said Jayne Sebright, Executive Director at the Center for Dairy Excellence. “Our new tool is an interactive way to visualize the true economic impact of dairy in Pennsylvania’s rural communities.”

In the form of an interactive map, the tool shares the number of farms, cows, jobs, herd size, and economic impact dairy provides for each county across Pennsylvania. Data is based on the 2017 National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Agricultural Census.

For example, the map highlights the following data:

Berks County – 298 farms, 29,704 cows, 99.68 average herd size, 2,970.4 number of jobs and $712.90 million in economic impact
Centre County – 160 farms, 10,561 cows, 66.01 average herd size, 1,056.1 jobs and $253.45 million in economic impact

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.