The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Working the farm
Despite sprawling development, tough economic conditions and increasing government regulations, farmers in Chelsea, Dexter and surrounding areas keep on . . .
PUBLISHED: March 1, 2007
Every seven years the Agriculture Department publishes a census of farms and farming - the next one is due in 2009.Along with the current numbers, for things such as farms in total, numbers by size in acres, crops by type, animals, woodlands, pasturelands, fallow-lands, etc., is a comparison with the previous census – seven years prior.
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There is something almost Biblical in the spacing of reports by seven years, bringing to mind plagues of locusts, and drought from the Old Testament. But it does paint a picture of change.Some of those changes are puzzling: Between 1997 and 2002, for instance, the number of "farms" increased from 1,202 to 1,325, according to the census. In the same period the number of acres in farms dropped from 189,423 to 175,259, and the average size of a farm dropped from 158 acres to 132 while market values of those farms almost doubled.
Those facts are not hard to fathom. Change can be seen from the side of the road, just by driving around the county.
The 2002 census records a drop in land enrolled in Conservation Reserve or Wetland Reserve Programs. And, although no figures were recorded in earlier years, the census of 2002 began tracking the number of farms and acres devoted to organically raised crops and the farms and acres enrolled in federal or other crop insurance programs.What the 2009 census shows by numbers and comparison will paint yet another picture of farming in Washtenaw County.
The obvious – heavier traffic on the roads, urbanized areas crowding their operations and new neighbors complaining about things from "smells" to "noise" – are common to them all. But there are other factors that only farmers know about and understand. Heritage Newspaper reporters spent some time recently with the people who know farming better than anyone – the farmers.
We sat in their kitchens, walked their land, toured their barns and observed what they do. And we talked – about their history, their lifestyle, their concerns and their future. We got their perspective on the current state of farming in Washtenaw County at this mid-point between two census accountings.
Many of our local farmers are part of a long line of family members who have worked the same land for decades. They are our neighbors, they attend our churches, their kids go to school with our kids. And, like the folks at Pfizer and the Big Three auto plants, their world is changing.
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