How Do Louisiana Farmers Use 8,3 Million Acres Of Farmland And 31,300 Farms - American Farming
foreign s today we are going to the U.S state of Louisiana to see how farming and livestock work here agriculture is one of Louisiana's most important industries ranking in the top three along with petrochemicals and tourism according to USDA statistics at the beginning of 2022 there are about 31 000 operating farms in Louisiana with the total area of about 8.3 million Acres accounting for 29 of the state's land area [Music] currently operations on farms in Louisiana are mainly growing corn sugarcane rice raising cattle pigs and poultry in addition the state is also famous for catching some seafood species such as shrimp oysters and crabs each year the Louisiana shrimp industry creates approximately 15 000 jobs and contributes 1.4 billion dollars in state revenue we are currently on a pig farm in Southwestern Louisiana here more than 200 pigs are raised on a free-range Farm they are free to dig into the ground and play in a large protected area it is estimated that there are about 175 pig farms in Louisiana that are raising pigs this way the number of pigs raised on the free range in this state is about 4 000. every day hundreds of pigs at this Farm will be herded into the forest next to the farm to freely feed here they can eat some grass and nuts in addition farmers will also bring pellets to the place to supplement the diet of pigs most of the feed used for pixia is corn soybeans and a mixture of sweet potato flour therefore the quality of pork on these Farms is always much higher than that of pigs kept in a barn according to statistics in 2021 there are about 63 000 pig farms of various sizes operating in the United States of which Iowa is the state with the largest number of pig farms in the country with about 5 700 Farms this translates to about 24 million heads foreign Peak Farms there are also about 680 other pig farms operating in Louisiana of various sizes in recent years in the United States there have always been about 2 700 pig slaughter facilities in operation and an average of about 1100 pigs are slaughtered every hour across the country it is estimated that around 120 to 130 million pigs are slaughtered across the country each year and the average annual pork production is about 25 million pounds contributing 57 billion dollars to the country's GDP [Music] this is a free raised Chicken Farm located west of New Orleans in Louisiana there are about 350 hens raised here for the purpose of harvesting eggs just like the pig farm in the beginning of the video every morning hundreds of chickens at this Farm are also released into the pasture to freely dig for insects and supplement forage the freedom to forage on a large pasture means most of the food is derived from nature making the quality of eggs at these chicken farms highly appreciated and they are almost always sold out in addition to foraging on their own in the pasture the chickens at this Farm are also supplemented with other Foods mainly corn and cereals even the leftovers from human meals will be used to feed the chickens [Music] according to the Louisiana Agricultural Center in 2021 there are about 1500 active chicken farms in the state and only about eight percent of them are free-range Farms in recent years the average amount of chickens produced in Louisiana has fluctuated between 870 and 890 million pounds and the state's revenue from the chicken industry is about 780 million dollars annually according to USDA statistics in 2021 in the United States there are around 233 000 active chicken farms and only 1.7 percent of them are free-range chicken farms most chickens raised the United States are raised in factory farms with absolutely no access to the outdoors [Music] goodbye livestock Farms we will now go to the sugarcane fields of Louisiana to see how the process of cultivating and harvesting millions of tons of sugarcane happens the end of July is usually the time when sugarcane planting takes place in most fields in Louisiana according to statistics in 2021 in Louisiana there are about 403 000 Acres of Farmland used to grow sugar cane and this is the state with the second largest sugar cane area in the country after Florida today the majority of Louisiana's sugarcane Farms are concentrated in the southern part of Point Coupe County the area of sugarcane grown in this County accounts from about 22 percent of the cane growing area of the state most of the sugarcane varieties currently grown in Louisiana take about 11 to 13 months to be harvested [Music] July to October every year is the time when millions of tons of sugarcane is ready to be harvested in 2021 cane production in Louisiana is 13.3 million tons and Cane production in Florida is about 17.3 million tons [Music]
after harvesting thousands of tons of sugarcane will be poured into these wagons before being transported to the Sugar Factory thank you foreign exterior view of a sugar mill in Louisiana currently in Louisiana there are 11 operating Sugar factories and the annual production in this state is about 1.5 million tons accounting for 20 of the country's cane sugar production [Music] in addition to the vast sugarcane Fields Louisiana's agriculture is also famous for its rice fields currently this state ranks third among the states with the largest rice production in the country leading the list are Kansas and California according to data reported in 2019 in Louisiana there are 425 000 Acres of Farmland used for Rice cultivation and the number of active rice farms in this state is 823 Farms each year the United States produces 21 billion pounds of rice and about 55 of it is consumed domestically with the remainder exported to 120 other countries in addition the rice industry generates about 34 billion dollars a year in the United States and provides about 125 000 jobs [Music] farewell to the farms on the mainland of Louisiana we will now go into the waters to see how the process of catching millions of shrimp here is done every day these fishermen will sail into the sea about 70 miles from the mainland to catch shrimp these are recreational shrimp fishes who use trolls they're about 16 to 25 feet in length and are limited to no more than 250 pounds of shrimp per day per boat although the Nets yield a lot of fish all of these fish will be used to feed the seagulls the main aim of these fishermen is shrimp and crab for many years now Louisiana has always been the state with the largest shrimp production in the country with about 110 million pounds caught each year [Music] in addition to shrimp crayfish is also a species that is widely farmed and caught in Louisiana currently Louisiana is always leading in the country in terms of crayfish production an estimated 125 million pounds of crayfish are harvested here each year after the crayfish are dumped out of this trap the fishermen will continue to bait the Trap and put them under the water to prepare for the next Harvest [Music] currently in Louisiana there are about 1 000 crayfish fishermen and about 1 300 crayfish farmers after transporting millions of crayfish will be placed in these mesh bags and transported to the processing plant [Music] hello my friends today we will continue to the farms in the United States to see how the Harvest of thousands of tons of vegetables and fruits happens here in the 2022 crop and in the later part of the video we'll go to some U.S Waters to see how the fishing of certain species happens [Music] according to USDA forecasts due to the impact of climate change agricultural production in 2022 in the United States could be reduced by about seven percent compared to 2021. however for many Fruit and Vegetable Farms on a large scale the 2022 crop is still considered a Bountiful Harvest [Music] the first place we will visit is a sweet potato farm in Johnston County North Carolina the end of August to November is when about 5 000 workers flocked to sweet potato farms in North Carolina to harvest and about 35 percent of them are a legal immigrant workers the Harvest workers job is to pick up the sweet potatoes and fill these small buckets next the sweet potatoes will be loaded onto the truck and for every bucket of sweet potatoes these workers will receive a small cut to receive money at the end of the day in recent years the production of sweet potatoes harvested in North Carolina has always exceeded the production of sweet potatoes in any other state in the country [Music] according to statistics in 2021 the sweet potato growing area in North Carolina is about 46 000 acres and the yield is about 771 000 tons accounting for 43 of the country's sweet potato production in addition to North Carolina California and Mississippi there are also two states with large sweet potato growing areas in the United States [Music] we are currently at a table grape Farm in California [Music] every August to November is the time when tens of thousands of workers flock to California's grape Farms to harvest California's Vineyards are also home to the largest number of Migrant workers in the country it is estimated that more than 93 000 immigrant workers work on Vineyards in California each year billions of grapes will be cut and those that do not qualify will be discarded before packaging can take place at this Farm the amount of grapes that are dropped and discarded during the Harvest is about 17 to 20 percent for those who like to eat grapes this is a huge amount of grapes wasted [Music] according to a USDA report in 2021 the total area under viticulture in California is about 900 000 Acres accounting for 95 percent of the country's great growing area annually the state also produces about 5.9 million tons of grapes with a value of 5.2 billion dollars
not only is it the state with the largest fresh grape production in the Country California is also a state with Raisin production accounting for 98 of the nation's production third place we will visit in this video is a Cherry Farm in Washington between April and the end of July every year is the time when about 21 000 workers flocked to Cherry Farms across the country to harvest currently the United States has about 115 000 acres of land used to grow cherries mainly in States like Washington California Michigan and Oregon although they are often labeled simply as cherries at the grocery store there are more than one thousand different varieties of cherries grown in the United States feelings of cherries we picked and placed in those plastic buckets and for each bucket filled with cherries a worker here will receive a salary of four dollars on average they earn about 70 to 90 dollars a day after eight hours of work according to statistics in 2021 Cherry production in the United States is 266 000 tons and brings in a value of 523 million dollars Washington is the leading state in the country in terms of cherry production with about 164 000 tons followed by California with 59 000 tons and Oregon with 43 000 tons once harvested billions of cherries are sent to the factory to be packaged and processed into other products such as canned cherries or juice next we will go to a broccoli Farm in California to see how the process of harvesting tens of tons of broccoli happens here currently in California 119 000 acres of land is used to grow broccoli accounting for 90 percent of the country's broccoli growing area broccoli is harvested on all farms in the United States by hand because there are no Harvesters currently available for this vegetable these workers will cut the broccoli and fill the bucket they carry behind their backs every year about 4 000 workers come to California to work on Broccoli Farms after the buckets are loaded the broccoli is poured into plastic trays and sent to the factory for Packaging this is what happens at a packaging plant here broccoli will be sorted by size and packaging will also depend on the order [Music] foreign next we will go to the Waters of Alaska to see how the process of catching thousands of halibut works initially this farmer would hook the bait to the fishing line and release them into the sea each hook will be spaced about five to six feet apart and in each drop around 300 hooks will be used foreign [Music] after about two hours after the hooks were released into the sea about 4.7 million pounds of halibut are caught each year in Alaska and most of the halibut fishing is done by individual small boats once caught this Vision will use a knife to kill the flounder before transferring them to the boat's tank [Music] the last place we will visit in this video is the Waters of Louisiana here hundreds of tons of oysters will be harvested to move to a new farming site for many years now Louisiana has always been the state with the largest oyster production in the country the annual production of oysters harvested in this state accounts for about 63 percent of the national production after these oysters have been harvested they will be transferred to other boats and they will be continually raised to the new waters for about a year before being officially exported this is how these fishermen transfer all of their newly purchased oysters into the waters under their jurisdiction it takes about two hours to transfer all the oysters on this boat to the Sea
2022-12-21 22:22
