U.S. Census of Agriculture Shows Fewer Farms and Acres

The latest U.S. Census of Agriculture is out, the National Agricultural Statistics Service shows a seven percent decline in farms on two percent fewer acres from 2017 to 2022.

There are now 1.9 million farms in the United States on 880 million acres, sixty percent of that is owned.

Fewer farms by value in all categories, except those making above $500,000. The smallest farms, those making under $2,500 were hit the hardest, 113,000 fewer farms in that category to 678,000.

Total farm production expenses in the U.S. saw a significant increase of 30 percent over the last five years, now at $424.1 billion.

Nationally, there are 3.4 million total producers in the U.S., a third are women. The average farmer is 58.1 years old. Around eight percent of farmers are under the age of 34 while 60 percent are above the age of 55.

On average, three-fifths of farms have about 10 or more years on the farm for an average 23.5 year total. About a third of farmers work only on the farm and a third spend 200 or more days working off the farm.

Despite the loss of farms and acres, 21,000 more farms used no-till, adding 700,000 more acres. There's an additional 2.6 million acres of cover crops despite the mostly unchanged 153,000 farms using the practice.

And for the first time, the census included data on precision agriculture and internet access. Eleven percent of farms in the U.S. used precision agriculture, about 226,000 farms. Seventy-eight percent of farms had internet access, at 1.5 million.


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