University of Georgia study finds 'strikingly powerful' benefits to communities in which poultry production complexes are located.

By ROD SMITH

POULTRY production pays, according to a recent study concluding that counties that have poultry production facilities generate more than twice the income per acre of non-poultry-producing counties and have, on average, three times the net farm income of non-poultry-producing counties.

The study also found that poultry production returns substantial economic benefits to communities in which the complexes are located.

The study, "A Comparison of Farm Incomes for Poultry- & Non-Poultry-Producing Counties in South Georgia," was authored by Dr. Dan L. Cunningham, an extension specialist and professor in the department of poultry science at the University of Georgia.

While his study focused on poultry- and non-poultry-producing counties in southern Georgia, said the findings would be similar in other counties in other parts of the country. A parallel study would likely demonstrate that poultry production "has a strikingly powerful effect" on the economies of rural communities, he said.

Income, spending, taxes

According to the report, locating an integrated poultry production complex in a county creates an investment of more than $180 million in physical assets such as a feed mill, a hatchery, growout houses and a processing plant and generates more than $50 million per year in contract payments to growers and in complex payroll (Table 1).

Furthermore, a grower who invests in a four-house growout realizes good income during his debt-retirement period to pay for the houses and even stronger income following debt retirement (Table 2). Net farm income on both an income-per-farm and an income-per-acre-of-farm basis "is significantly greater" for farms that have diversified into poultry than those that have not, according to the report.

It acknowledges that the complex will draw on some community resources such as roads, rural utilities and schools but notes that these costs will be more than offset by new spending and tax revenues that flow from the complex and its labor. The report says all 20-plus complexes in Georgia "are operating as economic benefits in their communities."

Increased zoning restrictions in recent years against poultry production "run counter to the economic well-being of the counties" putting the restrictions in place, Cunningham said, so poultry companies, economists and scientists need to do a better job of explaining the economic value of poultry production to rural communities.

Cunningham's full report is available at http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/C897.htm.

Here's the point

AGRICULTURE makes many contributions to public health and well-being beyond the production of healthful, nutritious and safe food that's available at a price value.

As outlined in the stories this week, agricultural enterprises such as poultry production complexes bring millions of dollars in assets and tax bases to the communities in which they are located and generate millions of dollars in payments and wages. Agriculture also supports much of what is regarded as critical to lifestyles, including air and water quality, conservation and wildlife.

As more people grow up without a direct connection to farms and ranches, it becomes more important for agriculture to explain its role not only in food production but in other aspects of the quality of life, and it also becomes important for planners and policy-makers to get the facts about how rural and urban communities need to mesh with, rather than restrict, agriculture.

Agriculture needs to be responsible to the public, but communities need to be responsible to farmers and ranchers. The street runs both ways.

Information about agriculture's side of the street is available at the web sites cited in this week's Feedstuffs FoodLink stories and at www.FeedstuffsFoodLink.com.