TodayŐs Farm, Tomorrow – Harold Watters, OSU Extension Champaign County

 

Named For...French word meaning "open level country"


Established...Act - March 1, 1805

Land Area...428.6 Square Miles

County Seat...Urbana City

Geography...Urbana, OH     micropolitan area

 

Since the 1950Ős Champaign County has had a modern farming economy. By then we had tractors, herbicides and hybrid corn. As more people moved from the farm we required more mechanization to accomplish farm tasks.

 

In 1955 ($16 million income) main farm products were

 

By the mid 2000Ős ($52 million income)

 

We shifted from more labor-intensive enterprises like dairy to grain farming. We now operate capital-intensive operations – an average farm today is likely to have $300,000 to 400,000 in equipment inventory alone. A new combine can cost over $200,000.

 

In 1955 a farm was 155 acres and had 12 cows, 63% was in crops. The county had 1261 dairies.

 

In 2004 a farm has 224 acres with 86% in crops. This number may be a little deceptive however because many farms today are rented to a larger producer who may have as many as 4-5,000 acres in the farm unit. There are only 30 dairies in the county averaging 63 cows per operation.

 

For other farm operations –

Champaign County

1955

2004

All cattle – sold

40,561

11,800

Dairy

14,784

1900

Swine

58,271

18,000

Sheep

15,813

1,000

Poultry

197,781

 

Wheat

21,100           Acres

6,300

Hay

37,100           Acres

8,600

 

 

Other crops or enterprises now make up 6% of our farm income. $3,120,000

This is from about 75 farming operations.

From 1997 data this includes such crops as:

This list does not include any of the small animal operations such as goats, horses, buffalo, elk and others.

 

What will our farms look like in the future?

 

They will probably continue to get larger and produce more with less labor. Efficient food production is what American farmers do best. But we may be at a cross roads, we have enterprises today that are concentrating on QUALITY, and not on quantity.

 

As we have gotten to the point that we can afford more food than we should eat the demand for food quality has increased. There is an increase in Community Subscribed Gardens, organic is a tiny percent in the US of what it is in Europe – but growing here too. The desire for locally grown meat, vegetables and even oils is also growing rapidly. Some operations will be able to take advantage and prosper.

 

For the bulk of the producing farms, they will continue to be big producers of commodities. From discussions I have picked up over the last three years I now see that some of these commodities will be used for energy.

 

Current thinking is that we will be growing corn and forages. Most of the corn and soybeans we grow today go into meat production. As grain farmers have gotten larger so have livestock operations. Again we concentrate and become more efficient here too. We ship grain from Ohio to east coast livestock facilities.

 

Corn will be grown for animal needs but will also be able to meet ethanol production requirements. Dry material that is the waste product from an ethanol plant is higher protein animal feed.

 

For forages we can grow protein there too, and also feed directly to ruminants. There is the discussion about switchgrass being used for ethanol production – this could also increase protein value for livestock.

 

The interest in wheat is on an increase in Ohio. There is discussion today to grow white wheats and even hard reds in addition to our soft red wheat Ohio for local millers. This brings the quality issue home for grain crops too.                    21mar06