BUTLER/CUNNINGHAM

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Level 2

AL Ag Facts:

New Crops

Selection of Similar Pages

The set of buttons for this topic show what Alabama farmers did instead of row crops or traditional animal husbandry: raise poultry and catfish. This data is taken from the Alabama Agricultural Statistics (see "Handy Sites" above and introduction to AL Ag Facts), years 1994 and 2000. Both issues include statistics from about 10 years previous to the cover date, and so using both issues allows us to see statistics from 1984 through 2000. For both poultry and catfish, the 1980s to middle 1990s showed a rapid growth in the industry (statistics from 1994) while the period after 1995 (statistics from 2000) showed continued but slower growth. The number of chickens hardly expanded in the 1990s although yield continued to increase. The development of the industry is best seen from "1994 Broilers" and the "1994 Poultry Inventory" as a switch from table production to hatching somewhat complicates the trends in the "1994 Poultry Review". The amount of acreage and the yield for catfish both continued a modest climb in the 1990s. Similar arguments about expansion can be made for some other industries, such as vegetables and floriculture (nurseries), but it takes up too much space to put the statistics here; please see AAS on-line. The case for forestry is taken up on its own page under Alabama Ag Facts (see drop down menu above of similar pages).

A simple graphic depiction is available from the Auburn Univesity/NASS "Ag Folio" site, at least for poultry (see "Major Crops" in drop down menu above of similar pages). Even with this partial recovery, Alabama still does not usually rank high in US agriculture. But with this partial recovery for certain sectors in mind, we can see the contribution of the various industries to Alabama total agriculture. Poultry is now the largest contributor.