October 21st, 2019 Dan Severson talked to the class about the overview of the livestock industry in Delaware. Delaware has an economic impact of 8 million dollars. Delaware has 2,500 farms. 40% of Delaware farms are land area, and 29% of that land area is corn and beans. The Agriculture products sold to consumers make up 3.5 million in profit. 174,000 acres of farm are enrolled to Agriculture Land Preservation District, and 134,000 land is preserved. Delaware ranks first in U.S value of Agriculture production per acre, leaving California to rank second. Go Delaware! We are number one in lima beans. 98% of Delaware farms are family-owned. We spend 9.7% of our income on food. Poultry is the one food production that has increased over the years, the rest like pork, beef, lamb, and goat are less. Delaware has 235 cattle farms. We have about 14,000 cows in the whole state, making a 6-million-dollar profit. We have 55 pig farms, making that 3,300 pigs total in Delaware, making that a 2-million-dollar profit. There are 89 sheep farms, and about 179 sheep’s total in Delaware. In Delaware there are 91 goat meat farms with 1201 goats, 34 goat milk farms with 320 goats, and 5 angora with 15 goats. That makes about 81,000 in profits. In Delaware there are only 21 dairy farms with 4.500 dairy cows. Dairy production is dropping tremendously, even in the U.S. In Delaware we have four creamery’s that make ice cream with dairy. Learning about the livestock industry is so fascinating, to know how much animals can really affect us.