The area has experienced a huge influx of Hispanic agricultural workers during the 1990s. Agriculture remains a major factor in the local economy. Only 2 percent of the population farms full-time. Graves County ranks third among the state's counties in agricultural receipts, leading the way are burley tobacco and poultry production. Row crops also are common.
Tobacco is the top cash crop, used mainly in snuffs.
Back to Top Seaboard Farms of Kentucky opened a chicken-processing plant just north of Mayfield in 1991. The company also contracts with farmers to raise the birds and it operates a feed mill. State legislation to limit industrial hog-farrowing operations largely was the result of public opposition to such a proposed farm near Mayfield. While agriculture remains important, the economy is much more diverse than in the past, when the men's clothing industry dominated. Ball clay mining, another Graves County tradition, continues and numerous lamp companies have developed from it.