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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