The latest data from the USDA Farm and Land Survey shows a decrease in farming in the U.S.
The USDA conducts a yearly survey on the total number of U.S. farms. Called the USDA Farm and Land Survey, it shows the total number of farms, and land in U.S. farms, and allows for trends to be seen. Get the important details, as broken down in an AgFax.com article, of the survey below.
Statistics from the USDA Farm and Land Survey
One of the main take-aways from the USDA Farm and Land Survey is that the total number of U.S. farms declined in 2016 when compared with the number of farms in 2015. The number of acres in farms also decreased. Statistics include:
- The number of farms in the U.S. in 2016 was estimated at 2.06 million, down 8 thousand farms from 2015.
- The number of farms in the Sales Class $250,000 – $499,999 increased by 400 hundred farms while all other sales classes declined.
- The decrease for the Sales Class $1,000 – $9,999 (at 1.03 million farms), was the greatest decline, a decline of 5 thousand farms.
- The number of farms in the Sales Class $10,000 – $99,999 (at 621 thousand farms), declined by 2 thousand farms.
- The total land in farms in 2016 was at 911 million acres, a decrease of 1 million acres from 2015 totals.
- In 2016, almost 31 percent of all farmland was operated by farms with less than $100,000 in sales.
- The average farm size continued to go up in 2016 with the overall average size increased by 1 acre to 442 acres per farm.
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