The acting director of economic development for Huron County says agriculture has often been ignored in the past, because it was assumed that agriculture was doing very well so there were no need to change anything.
Cody Joudry believes there's always room for improvement and a need to adapt to changes in the economy and in the market place. He says the work plan they've created is about supporting existing agriculture as well as helping people trying to get into farming.
“This work plan is really about supporting ag that's already here and successful, marketing and awareness, helping enter the farming market; assets are going up in value so it's hard to enter the market right now, and also supporting existing businesses and finding new opportunities,” says Joudry.
He believes there is the potential to increase per-acre yield as well as develop value-added products where a business case can be made for those products.
"And other operations, market garden for example, but I'm not suggesting everyone become a market garden, might have up to $40,000 to $50,000 profit per acre, which is definitely on the extreme end. So there's a lot of room for us to grow there in terms of increasing profit per acre because we're not making any more land,” says Joudry. "So, for example is you look at hog industry, if we want to talk about having more places for slaughter and preparing those animals, there also has to be a business case for it. So it's about doing some of that due diligence and making sure there is a market there for that and then letting people know this is an opportunity that you could grab on to."
