Despite preservation efforts and attempts to steer development away from farmland, Lancaster County continues to lose farms.
In 1997, according to state statistics, the county had 5,695 farms, totaling 428,439 acres. Last year, it had 5,305 farms, with 407,000 acres.
That's a loss of 43 farms and 2,382 acres of farmland each year during the nine-year period.
If that trend continues, another 602 farms could be lost here by 2020.
Also, beware of those numbers; included are many properties some people might not even link to agriculture.
One of every seven "farms" here produces less than $1,000 in sales annually.
Another 17 percent sell less than $10,000 in farm products per farm per year.
On one of every four farms in Lancaster County, the main operator's main occupation is listed as something other than farming.
Swine and beef farms have accounted for many of the farm losses here the last few decades.
The number of hog farms in the county has plummeted since the early 1980s, when low prices forced a large number of small operators out of business.
In 1983, there were 1,450 hog farms in Lancaster County. By 2005, there were just 360.
Beef-farm numbers dropped from 4,230 in 1986 to 3,140 in 2005.
The number of dairy, poultry and sheep farms in the county has not changed dramatically here since 1990.
But the number of dairy farms in the state continues to plummet.
There were 28,000 dairies in Pennsylvania in 1964 but just 10,850 by 1999. Last year, there were 7,600, according to state statistics.
The loss of farms is nothing new.
In 1920, Lancaster County's 11,307 farms totaled 554,776 acres.
Two decades later, there were 507,217 acres in agriculture here and just 8,446 farms.
Since then, the number of farms and the amount of agricultural acreage in the county have steadily declined.
The million-dollar question is: How many more farms and how much more farmland can be lost here before agriculture businesses look elsewhere and the Garden Spot is no longer the Garden Spot?
CONTACT US:
rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032
