Agriculture has always been an influential contributor to Watauga County's economic performance. 

In its 2024 statistics report, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture reported $13.85 million in cash receipts generated by Watauga County farms, with an additional $5 million in economic impact coming from Watauga County Christmas Tree growers. The business of farming has changed a great deal over the decades. Now agritourism is counted on to keep many of these multi-generation family-farms producing.

On this week's Mind Your Business, we discuss the state of the agriculture community in Watauga County with Gray Shipley of Shipley Farms Beef. We'll hear some history about production in the area as well as how changing market realities have caused farms to focus more on providing experiences rather than high-volume yields. 

In the spirit of the emergence of warmer weather, we'll also hear from several local business owners about what they are most looking forward to this summer. We also provide an update on a key economic development project aimed at providing broadband connectivity in hard to reach places.

Mind Your Business is a weekly production of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce. This podcast is made possible thanks to the sponsorship support of Appalachian Commercial Real Estate.

Catch the show each Thursday morning at 9AM on WATA (1450AM & 96.5FM) in Boone.

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