Every five years the United States Department of Agriculture carries out an extensive survey of farms and farmers across the nation. The information that is collected and published serves a wide variety of purposes. One of the more important ones is to provide a snapshot of what farms and farmers at the national, state, and county level look like and how they are changing over time.
Highlights
- The number of farm units increased by 0.9%.
- The number of farmer producers increased by 7.1%.
- The average farm size decreased from 355 acres to 345 acres.
- The number of small and medium acreage farms increased while the number of large acreage farms decreased.
- The total acres of farmland decreased by 1.9%.
- Crop sales accounted for 51% of total gross farm income, Livestock sales accounted for 44% and direct government payments accounted for 2%.
Read the full article by Dr. William Edwards on the Ag Decision Maker website.
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