Top 10 Counties in Market Value of Agriculture Commodity Sales 2002
The 2002 Agricultural Census reports the value of agricultural commodity sales for the state and each of the counties. According to the 2002 Census Missouri had agricultural commodity sales of $4.98 billion. That is nearly $.5 billion less than the $5.47 billion reported in the 1997 Agricultural Census. Commodity sales in 2002 were less than reported in 1997 in 72 of the 114 counties. The counties with lower sales in 2002 were dispersed throughout the state.
Table 1 reports the agricultural commodity sales of the top 10 counties in 2002 and compares the sales of each of those counties with the value of each of the commodities marketed in 1997. The top 10 counties in 2002 had combined sales of $1.16 billion (23.3 percent of the state total). Those same counties had combined sales of $1.18 billion in 1997 (21.6 percent of state total).
Barry was the top county in 2002 with sales of more than $201 million. As indicated in the table, Barry had the 4th largest commodity sales in 1997 but county sales increased by more than $47 million between 1997 and 2002 - the largest increase in the state. Newton, Stoddard, McDonald and Lawrence counties ranked 2nd through 5th in commodity sales in 2002 but, as indicated in the table, their rank changed little from 1997 to 2002. Although Newton County sales were $13 million greater in 2002 than 1997 the sales of Stoddard, McDonald and Lawrence counties each declined significantly from 1997 to 2002.
The primary commodity produced by five of the top six ranked counties was poultry including Pettis County. Poultry production was also the principal commodity marketed by Moniteau County which ranked 10th in commodity sales in 2002. The exception among the top six was Stoddard County in which crop production exceeds livestock production even though poultry contractors are a major enterprise in the county. Like Stoddard County, Saline and Audrain counties can also be best described as producing and marketing a balance of crops and livestock.
The seventh ranked county in 2002 commodity sales is New Madrid County in which commodity production is virtually all cash grain.
A significant change among the top rated counties in commodity sales between the 1997 and 2002 Census was the disappearance of two of the top hog producing counties, Sullivan and Mercer counties, from the top 10. The commodity sales of Sullivan County, which ranked first in 1997 with sales of $185.7 million dropped to $73.8 million in 2002 and Mercer County, which ranked 5th in 1997 with sales of $123.1 million dropped to $83.4 million in 2002. In 2002 Mercer County ranked 11th and Sullivan dropped to 15th. The sales of those two counties declined from $308.8 million in 1997 to $157.2 in 2002.
For more information see the following tables:
This file last modified Thursday May 07, 2009, 16:03:46
Questions/Comments regarding this page or this Web site are strongly encouraged and can be sent to
OSEDA, Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis Telephone: (573)882-7396
240 Heinkel Building, Columbia, MO 65211