Economist says Minnesota's ag economy is strong
Heather Thorstensen
Date Modified: 01/07/2010 9:45 AM
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Agri News staff writer
ST. PAUL -- An economist for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture says the state's agriculture industry is healthy and strong.
The economist, Su Ye, is certain data will show agriculture remained the state's second biggest employer in 2009, despite the financial crisis that shook the economy.
"Absolutely, we will maintain that position," she said.
She recently compiled a report that describes how the agriculture industry contributed to the state economy in 2008.
Most notably, it shows a $3 billion jump for Minnesota's agriculture cash receipts. Higher crop prices that year drove the state's agriculture sales up, from $12.8 billion in 2007 to $15.8 billion.
Approximately 60 percent of 2008 sales came from crops. Corn brought the most, roughly $4.7 billion. Approximately $2.8 billion of soybeans were sold.
About 40 percent of sales came from livestock. Hogs took the top spot, at $2 billion. Dairy was second, at approximately $1.7 billion, followed by cattle and calves, at $1.1 billion
As of 2008, Minnesota is the sixth-largest agricultural producer in the nation. The state ranked first in the country for production of turkeys, sugar beets, sweet corn and green peas for processing.
Just more than half of it's total land area is in farms and 27 percent of the state's 5.2 million people live in rural areas.
Minnesota had 81,000 farms in 2008. That's a steady number compared to 2007. The number of farms prior to 2007 had been declining, but they've held since then thanks to an increase in hobby farms, Ye said. Some of these hobby farms don't have meaningful income. Still, the average farm size is 332 acres.
Minnesota's 2008 ag exports made a new record, at $5.5 billion. Soybeans and soybean products comprised one-third of the products sold to other countries. Mexico, Japan and China were major export markets.
The agriculture industry in 2008 was the state's second-largest employer. Every agriculture production job supported 1.5 other jobs in all sectors of Minnesota's economy, such as food processing, transportation, trade and construction.
"Many of our economic sectors are directly or indirectly related to agriculture," Ye said.
Her predictions for next year's report that looks back on 2009 will show a solid industry, even though it wasn't an easy year and it will take time for cash receipts and exports to rebound.
"I think agriculture will remain strong, and we have a very, very healthy agricultural industry," said Ye.
To see the full report: www.mda.state.mn.us/mnagprofile.aspx