Number Of Farms Sees Little Fluctuation Compared To 2008

For 2009 the number of farms in the U.S. is estimated at 2.2 million; virtually unchanged from 2008. Total land in farms, at 919.8 million acres, decreased 110 thousand acres from 2008. The average farm size is 418 acres, unchanged from the previous year, USAgNet reports.

Farm numbers and land in farms are broken down into five economic sales classes. Farms and ranches are classified into these “sales classes” by summing their sales of agricultural products and government program payments. Sales class breaks occur at $10,000, $100,000, $250,000, and $500,000.

Farm numbers declined slightly in the $10,000 to $99,999 and $500,000 and over sales classes. Lower commodity prices and smaller value of sales contributed to changes in the number of farms within these sales classes. Farm numbers increased 0.5%, to 1.23 million farms, in the $1,000 to $9,999 sales class. Meanwhile, the number of farms in the $500,000 and over sales class decreased by 1.0% to 124,720 farms.

Land in farms decreased in the smallest and largest sales classes. In the $1,000 to $9,999 sales class, land in farms dropped 1.1%, to 105.5 million acres. Land operated by farms in the $500,000 & over in sales class decreased 1.0%, to 290.0 million acres. Land operated by farms with $250,000 to $499,999 in sales increased by 4.1%.

The average farm size was unchanged in 2009. However, average farm sizes declined in some of the sales classes partially due to smaller farms moving up to higher sales classes.