Louisiana agriculture net worth up 7% in 2011 to $10.7B

Despite an unusual production year that featured drought and flooding, agriculture accounted for $10.7 billion of the state’s economy in 2011, according to the LSU AgCenter 2011 Ag Summary, released today. That’s a 7% increase over 2010 figures and represents a strong improvement in production over the past few years, according to John Westra, LSU AgCenter economist. “The $10.7 billion in total value was the first time since 2007 that we have had more than $10 billion in total value of agriculture production in Louisiana,” Westra says in a news release. Row crops including feed grains, sugarcane, cotton, wheat and soybeans gained significant value last year, Westra says, and accounted for more than $700 million of the total value. Commodities such as corn, sorghum and soybeans had reductions in yields, but total acreage was up. Sugarcane and rice saw record-setting yields, while cotton yields also improved over the previous year. Commodity prices were also up: feed grain by 50%; soybeans, 23%; sugarcane, 21%; wheat, 31%; and cotton, 8%. Rice was one of the few major commodities to see losses in 2011. While rice farmers had record-setting yields and prices were up, a significant decline in acreage—120,000 fewer than 2010—resulted in total value dipping $59 million, or 11%. Fisheries numbers, which lag a year due to the reporting schedule, saw a slight decline in some areas. However, overall numbers in 2010—the year of the BP oil spill—remained unchanged from 2009, with a value $956 million. More analysis of the summary and complete figures for the state, as well as figures by parish, are available at the LSU AgCenter website here.