Livestock Industry

Dan Severson is an Extension Agent in New Castle County. He came in and spoke to our class about the livestock industry in Delaware. I was very interested in learning about the livestock industry because that’s what I grew up around. Growing up my neighbor had a farm and he raised everything from sheep, beef cattle, goats, chickens, and turkeys. From working on the farm I knew a lot about the meat consumption. In consumptions terms lamb, veal, and goat have gone down in America. Most people just don’t like certain types of meat or they never want to try but in other countries they are in huge demand like goat and lamb. So to learn the number history was intriguing. For instance, the average age of a farmer is fifty-eight years and in order to be considered a farm, it’s not based off of your acreage it’s based off of sales. A farm has to make $1,000 a year in sales. Dan also mentioned that the livestock has more to it other than selling meat and fur. Apart from the meat processing aspect of the livestock industry, we are able to produce more, such as soaps and lotions. One thing that surprised me the most was that in the United States only 6.6% of our money is spent on food.

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