Ag Census: Farmers age while small farm numbers grow

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released the results of the 2017 Census of Agriculture.

Nationally, it found there are now 2.04 million farms and ranches in the country. That is down 3.2% since the last survey in 2012.

The average size of a farm is 441 acres, which is up 1.6%. Small farms, of one to nine acres, make up just 0.1% of American farmland while large farms of 2,000 acres or more make up 58%. 96% of farms and ranches are family-owned.

A change in census questions revealed one oversight from previous years. The number of producers was up in 2017 to 3.4 million, because more farms reported multiple producers. Most of the newly identified producers were female. All told, 36% of all producers are female.

The average age of farm producers continues to rise. The average age was 57.5, up 1.2 years from 2012.

Idaho statistics indicate there were 24,996 farms operating in 2017, up by 180 from 2012, but the average size of a farm was six acres smaller.

There were nearly two thousand more farms of one to nine acres in size in 2017 than there were in 2012.

You can find the complete Idaho Census of Agriculture here.