Oregon Counties Fare Well

Oregon Counties Fare Well

Oregon Counties Fare Well. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture.

There are more than 3,000 counties across the nation, but Oregon's 36 counties stack up quite well in specific agricultural production, according to the latest Census of Agriculture.

JOHNSON:  There are numbers here that show top 50 production for Willamette Valley counties, for Eastern Oregon counties, for Central Oregon counties, for coastal counties. Oregon has something to be proud of in terms of national rankings throughout the state.

Land-use specialist Jim Johnson of the Oregon Department of Agriculture says some of the state's counties actually lead the entire nation when it comes to acreage in production or inventory of animals.

JOHNSON:  Clackamas County is the number one Christmas tree county in the country. Hood River County, number one pear producer in the United States. Linn County– the grass seed capital of the world. Everybody has seen the billboard going down Interstate 5. The numbers reflect it, Linn County is the number one grass seed county in the country.

Other top ranked counties include Marion for hazelnuts, blackberries, and boysenberries; Umatilla in green peas for processing and Morrow County for hybrid poplar trees. In total, Oregon counties make the top 50 list of all US counties 113 times, and that doesn't count the commodities not tracked by the census. Not bad for a state that ranks only 28th of all states in value of ag products sold. Johnson says Marion County remains Oregon's powerhouse in agricultural production.

JOHNSON: Marion County is top 50 in over 10 different commodities. Number one in hazelnuts, number one in blackberries and Marionberries, number two in hops, number two in grass seed, all the way down the list.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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