Key animal ag areas facing depopulation

Rural counties are experiencing long-term population loss, and the trend is particularly acute in the Great Plains where animal agriculture has played a major role for centuries, according to new research by the University of New Hampshire.  Across the country, nearly 35 percent of rural counties are experiencing protracted and significant population loss, according to a release about the study from the university’s Carsey School of Public Policy. Those counties are now home to 6.2 million residents, a third fewer than lived there in 1950.A map tracking the severity of the population loss shows that the out-migration is most acute in a swath of the rural U.S. from Montana and the Dakotas south to Texas, with Iowa and Missouri just to the east also part of the trend. These not only are areas where livestock is raised, but also where many major processing facilities are located, and have been having trouble finding sufficient labor for years.