Milling & Baking News - February 10, 2009 - 39

Ingredient Market Trends
Weekly Spotlight

Census shows increase in number of
small farms but continued overall
concentration in production

T
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/ world-grain.com
39 /bakingbusiness.com
July 3, 2007
Milling
& Baking News

he long-term trend of declining
farm numbers was arrested at least
temporarily, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's 2007 Census of Agriculture released last week.
The census, conducted every five years,
indicated there were 2,204,792 farms in
the United States in 2007, a net increase
of 75,810 from 2002. Most of
the growth in farm numbers
came in the proliferation of
small operations. Many individual sectors of production,
including grains and oilseeds, horticulture, cattle and
hog operations, saw declines
in farm numbers.
Eleven states saw net declines in the number of farms
within their borders while
39 states saw the number of
their farms increase. State
trends within regions were
not uniform. For instance, the
number of farms increased
in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas
and Colorado but decreased
in Nebraska.
Between 2002 and 2007, the number of
farms with sales of less than $1,000 increased by 118,000. The number of farms
with sales of more than $500,000 grew
by 46,000 during the same period.
Since the 2002 census, 291,329 new
farms began operation. New farms,
on average, had 201 acres of land and
$71,000 in sales. By comparison, the average for all farms was 418 acres and
$135,000 in sales. The percentage of
principal operators who reported farming as their primary occupation was 33%
for these new farms. The average for all
principal farm operators was 45%.
The census indicated continued
concentration of production. In 2002,
144,000 farms produced 75% of the value
of U.S. agricultural production. In 2007,
the number of farms that produced that
same share of production was 125,000.
The census showed the two largest
categories of farms were residential/lifestyle farms (36% of the total) and retirement farms (21%). Large family farms
(sales between $250,000 and $500,000)
and very large family farms (sales of

more than $500,000) made up only 9% of
all farms.
Most farms in the U.S. were small,
with 60% of all farms reporting less than
$10,000 in sales of agricultural products.
Of the 2.2 million farms nationwide,
only 1 million showed positive net cash
income from the farm operation. The

remaining 1.2 million farms depended
on non-farm income to cover farm expenses.
Of the 2.2 million principal farm operators, 1.2 million reported something
other than farming as their primary occupation. The share of farmers working
off-farm grew to 65% in 2007 from 55%
in 2002.
Agricultural land ownership remained
stable over the past five years. The 2007
census showed 62% of farmland was
owned by the operator. Areas with more
cropland, such as the Midwest, tended
to have a greater percentage of rented
land.
In 2007, U.S. farms sold $297 billion
in agricultural products while incurring
$241 billion in production expenses. Income from sales increased 48% between
2002 and 2007 while production expenses increased 39%. In addition to receipts
from sales, U.S. farms received $8 billion
in government payments and $10 billion
in farm-related income.
The average age of U.S. farm operators rose to 57.1 years in 2007 from 55.3
years in 2002. MBN
Milling & bakingbusiness.com
Baking News
February
10, 2009 / 39
/ world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - February 10, 2009

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