Cattle overtakes nursery as Oregon’s top ag commodity, Aug. 6

For the first time in 20 years, there’s a new leader among Oregon’s diverse agricultural commodities in terms of production value. Cattle and calves has regained the top spot with a record breaking year in 2014, overtaking greenhouse and nursery products. It was 1994 when greenhouse and nursery supplanted cattle and calves as number one. Newly released statistics from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) provides a preliminary picture of last year’s crop and livestock value of production. The numbers indicate that Oregon agriculture continues to be a major economic contributor to the state. The overall estimate for total production value in 2014 is about $5.4 billion, which is roughly unchanged from the past couple of years. Some commodities have shown tremendous increases while others have declined. The successful ones rely on a formula of good production and high prices for what was sold. With Oregon producing more than 220 commodities as part of its agriculture, there will always be some winners and some losers any given year. In general, the results of 2014 show more pluses than minuses. The value of agricultural production in Oregon last year includes a top ten list that reflects the new leader, but most of the names are familiar. There is some shuffling in the rank order: (1) Cattle and calves, $922 million; (2) Greenhouse and nursery products, $830 million; (3) Hay, $703 million; (4) Milk, $656 million; (5) Grass seed, $449 million; (6) Wheat, $302 million; (7) Potatoes, $164 million; (8) Hazelnuts, $129 million; (9) Pears, $127 million; (10) Wine grapes, $118 million. In addition to cattle and calves swapping places with greenhouse and nursery products from the previous year’s list, wine grapes cracked the top ten while onions dropped out. All top ten commodities showed an increase in production value from 2013 with the exception of wheat and potatoes. For the first time in history, Oregon had two commodities above the $800 million mark in production value and four commodities valued at more than a half billion dollars. Onions, Christmas trees, and blueberries just missed the top ten list yet still eclipsed $100 million in production value. The preliminary 2014 statistics also show there are now 34,600 farms in Oregon, which is down slightly from the previous year, and the average size of farm has inched slightly to 474 acres. Included in the numbers is a list of commodities in which Oregon is the nation’s leading producer– Christmas trees, hazelnuts, grass seed, blackberries, Boysenberries, black raspberries, Storage onions, and potted florist azaleas.