Known for the Gene Autry cap pistol, the Kenton National Coon Dog Trials, the world's largest flea market, and the only production site of NFL footballs, Hardin County is chalking up another superlative. It is now home to the largest egg production operation in Ohio.

It was market access, available land and abundant water that convinced AgriGeneral to select the north central Ohio county for the first of five sites that will eventually house 10 million birds. The first site represents an investment of $26 million.

From Hardin, AgriGeneral enjoys two important advantages: it can easily serve both the big East Coast and Midwest markets and it can tap the lower prices for grain -- a main cost of the operation -- available in this area. The abundance of corn and soybeans grown in Hardin County was also a major driving factor for plant location. The company, which has another large operation in Croton, east of Columbus, packages eggs for super market chains. AgriGeneral is currently grading about 3,100 cases of eggs a day (about 2.2 million eggs), and is putting in a new laying house about every four weeks.

Typical of the work ethic of Hardin's labor force, the ladies upstairs are having a productive day. AgriGeneral processes more than two million eggs a day at its new facility.

A quirk of nature gave Hardin County another valuable resource -- the 12,000-acre, deliciously-rich McGuffey Marsh. Eons ago, a glacier broke off, leaving a large deposit of ice, which melted at varying rates as the ice receded. This created a great depressed area into which decaying matter collected. Today, this rich organic muck produces incredible yields. There were once more onions grown in the McGuffey Marsh than in all of the U.S.

It is a fragile soil, given to wafting away on the wind. So farmers plant trees as windbreaks and use plastic drainage tubes to divert the excess water that seeps up from the marsh. The results are worth the extra effort.

Now the niche is carrots. One of the largest producers is Wyss and York Street Farms, which grows slicer and dicer carrots for such processors as Campbell Soup, Stokelys, DelMonte and others, delivering over 10,000 tons of carrots a season.

A marketer extraordinaire, Ron Wyss produced a video called "The Carrot Highway," which teaches kids a little history, math, science and geography to the tune of rap music.

Most of the carrots are currently shipped out of state, and Hardin could well support a processor for this and other crops such as potatoes and food-grade corn. The county also is a top producer of soybeans, and a processing plant is one obvious opportunity.

Other agribusinesses in the county include the pork producing operations of Watkins and Seyfert's corn chips, which are made from Hardin-grown corn.

Hardin has both road and rail advantages for food processors. It is in the I-75 corridor and has service by Conrail's main line between Columbus and Chicago.

	Meigs County		Pike County
	Mid-Ohio / Obetz and Gahanna		Mercer and Auglaize Counties
	Hardin County		Marion County
	Village of Leipsic		West Central Ohio
	Medina County		Fostoria