Farms.com Home   News

New Tool Released to Calculate the Value of Pennsylvania Dairy

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

 

Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Swine Industry Advances: Biodigesters Lower Emissions and Increase Profits

Video: Swine Industry Advances: Biodigesters Lower Emissions and Increase Profits

Analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG emissions) in the Canadian swine sector found that CH4 emissions from manure were the largest contributor to the overall emissions, followed by emissions from energy use and crop production.

This innovative project, "Improving Swine Manure-Digestate Management Practices Towards Carbon Neutrality With Net Zero Emission Concepts," from Dr. Rajinikanth Rajagopal, under Swine Cluster 4, seeks to develop strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

While the management of manure can be very demanding and expensive for swine operations, it can also be viewed as an opportunity for GHG mitigation, as manure storage is an emission source built and managed by swine producers. Moreover, the majority of CH4 emissions from manure occur during a short period of time in the summer, which can potentially be mitigated with targeted intervention.

In tandem with understanding baseline emissions, Dr. Rajagopal's work focuses on evaluating emission mitigation options. Manure additives have the potential of reducing manure methane emissions. Additives can be deployed relatively quickly, enabling near-term emission reductions while biodigesters are being built. Furthermore, additives can be a long-term solution at farms where biogas is not feasible (e.g., when it’s too far from a central digester). Similarly, after biodigestion, additives can also be used to further reduce emissions from storage to minimize the carbon intensity of the bioenergy.