UGA report shows Athens area ranks high in agriculture production

Athens is is known to most people as the home of the University of Georgia, music and football, but it's also in some ways right at the heart of Georgia's huge agricultural industry.

The area is home to major state and federal agricultural-related laboratories and agencies such as the Food Safety and Inspection Service, charged with keeping American food safe, and entire federal and UGA laboratory buildings devoted to teaching and research in the huge poultry industry.

But the Athens area is also one of the state's most productive agricultual areas.

Several neighboring counties are among the state's top-producing agricultural counties, according to the latest Farm Gate Value Report from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences' Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development.

One metro Athens county, Madison County, was the state's second-largest producer in 2015, according to the annual report, produced by center director Kent Wolfe and research professional Karen Stubbs.

Madison's agricultural production of $452 million ranked only behind south Georgia's Colquitt County, at $473 million.

Nearby Jackson County ($323 million) ranked sixth among the state's 159 counties in agricultural production.

Both counties' rankings are due mainly to poultry houses. Madison was the state's top broiler producer. Its 530 chicken houses produced $329.7 million, while 515 Jackson County houses produced $190 million of chicken for the country's dinner tables.

Jackson and Madison are also among the state's top egg-producing counties, according to the Farm Gate Value report.

Jackson and Madison producers accounted for more than 10 percent of the state's overall production of poultry and eggs.

Another nearby county, Franklin, was the state's second-largest broiler producer - $323 million from 836 chicken houses.

Statewide, broiler production was $4.4 billion, about 32 percent of the state's total agricultural production.

Jackson and Madison also are among the state's top 10 beef-producing counties, Jackson 6th at $14.7 million and Madison seventh at $13.3 million.

Jackson is also the state's number two producer of Christmas trees, at $420,000, and the number two quail-producing county at $6.3 million.

Another metro Athens county, Oglethorpe, also ranks among the state's top livestock-producing counties. Oglethorpe is among the state's top 10 in pork and broiler production, and is also one of the state's top beef producers.

Even urban Clarke County and neighboring Oconee County are among the state's top counties in some kinds of agriculture.

Both are among the state's top producers in "ornamental horticulture," plants destined for yards and inside houses rather than stomachs.

Ornamental horticulture was the fastest-growing segment of agriculture in 2015 - up about $181 million from the year before, a 30 percent increase.

Oconee County ranked third in the state in container growing at $8.2 million, third in field nursery production ($7.2 million) and ninth in ornamental horticulture (($19.2 million).

Clarke ranked seventh in container growing ($4.1 million), third in greenhouse production ($32 million) and fourth in ornamental horticulture ($36.8 million).

Overall Georgia agricultural production declined in 2015, but not significantly - down 1 percent from 2014 to$13.8 billion.

Some declines and advances show how agriculture is changing.

The value of Georgia's cotton crop was $713 million, down 26 percent from 2014, and less than half its $1.5 million value in 2011.

And even though Georgia is called the peach state, the fruit only ranks a distant third behind pecans and blueberries on the long list of fruit and vegetables the state's farmers grow.

Pecans accounted for about 51 percent of the total fruit and nut farm gate value of $707 million; blueberries for 36 percent; and peaches, 7 percent.