Number Of Farms Dropped, According To Census Of Ag

The 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture numbers were released Thursday.  Those figures shows the number of farms in the nation dropped 3% from the last census in 2012 to just over two million.

"The number of farms at the U-S level decreased about 67,000 farms. Many of those are in the mid-sized category or 50-to-499 acres,” said Ag Statistics Board Chair Joe Parsons.

"Looking back across the five-year period, the largest change in crop acres harvested was for soybeans, which were up 14 million acres in 2017, compared to 2012. Corn was down 2.7 million acres and wheat was down 10.1 million acres."

Of the 396 million acres devoted to crop land, about 320 million acres was harvested in 2017.

"And the really interesting part is to lay this out on maps and be able to really see how these changes are playing out across the country at the county level."

For additional numbers, visit NASS’ Website.

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