

Written by David Castellon, Staff Writer published on February 7, 2019 - 1:45 PM

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To most anybody involved in California’s agricultural industry, it’s common knowledge that three of the five South Valley Counties — Kern, Tulare and Fresno — were the top ag producers in 2017.

Now Kings and Madera counties have their rankings, ninth and 11th places, respectively, according to the latest summary or county agricultural crop reports issued by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Crop data from each county’s ag commissioner submitted to CDFA comes from the previous publishing year.

Only 49 of California’s 58 counties submitted 2017 crop reports in time to be included in the statewide report, so CDFA officials used data on sales of crops, livestock and other goods from previous years for Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Plumas, San Benito, San Francisco, Sierra and Trinity counties in lieu of their actual sales for last year.

Modoc County is listed as having no ag-related sales last year, as it hasn’t published a crop report since 2008, according to the state report.

As previously reported, Kern County was the top agricultural county last year, based on sales of ag goods that totaled more than $7.25 billion.

Second place was Tulare County, with $7.03 billion in sales and Fresno County with $7.02 billion, the same rankings they held in 2016.

Among the rankings for the top 10 ag counties, Stanislaus County moved up to fifth placed while Merced County dropped to sixth. Kings County — with $2.06 billion in sales — replaced Imperial County, which ranked ninth in 2016.

Madera County, with more than $1.97 billion in ag sales last year, held onto the same 11th-place ranking it held in 2016.

“California’s counties reported an increase of 5.1 percent in the value of agricultural production for 2017,” with combined sales totaling more than $59.57 billion, not counting timber,” the report states. “Six counties reported agricultural production exceeding $3 billion each.”

Outside of Modoc County, San Francisco reported the lowest ag sales in 2017, totaling just $299,000.

See the full list online at www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/pdfs/2017cropyearcactb00.pdf.