Kentucky Agriculture Fares Better Than Predictions

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Credit wikipedia.org

Kentucky’s agriculture industry is faring better than early predictions.  The agriculture industry, which includes crops, cattle and horses, earned more than $5 billion.  That figure is beyond Kentucky’s reach this year, but University of Kentucky Agriculture Economist Will Snell says many farmers should still do okay.

“This year we were actually poised to surpass that until mother nature certainly threw a hook and wrench there and even though our yields were down considerably for crops.  It’s still gonna end up being a pretty good year for agriculture in the state as a whole,” said Snell.

An early summer drought wiped out many crops, including western Kentucky’s corn.  But, Snell says some other sectors of the farm industry have done well.

“Livestock prices have been relatively strong.  We’ve seen some stability in our equine sector.  And even though tobacco’s had its challenges over the years, we’ve got a very good tobacco crop and I think prices will be strong this fall,” added Snell.

Snell says the state’s dairy farmers have been hurt by high feed costs. As for grain growers, he says many will be saved by the federal crop insurance program.  As a result, he says that makes the bottom line looks much better for individual farmers.