By the Numbers
The latest census numbers were released last week. Not the one you normally think about, but the census specific to agriculture which is conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The census packet is sent out every five years and can take up to several hours to complete with questions detailing acreages, production, livestock numbers, sales numbers, dollars spent on feed, amount of fuel used, and personal demographics. If you fail to fill out the information and send it back they send a smaller packet, somewhat less daunting. And if you put that one in the round file eventually they’ll send out a USDA employee to ask why you are refusing to return the census materials.
Unfortunately, said USDA employee arrived at the farm when I was shoveling a deep winter manure pack out of the barn by hand as old barns were not built for heavy equipment. He demanded I immediately stop and answer all of his questions. I suggested he get a pitchfork and help me finish my work if he wanted me to help him with his.
“If you’re not going to help me, I’m not going to help you,” was the only response he got from me that day before he moved on to my plain neighbors’ farm who also did not fill out the paperwork due to their inherent distrust of the government. My only excuse was the lack of time.
Last week the USDA finally released the data from the 2022 Agricultural Census and I thought I’d share some of what the agency considered noteworthy.
While the current NASS administrator referred to the census as a comprehensive snapshot, he went on to say that the data basically remained consistent except for added datasets regarding hemp production, precision agriculture (aka: AI & robotics), and rural internet access which is critical for all those farmers posting tractor accidents and cute animal videos to their social media accounts.
There were just over 1 million farmers with 10 or fewer years of experience, an increase in the number of beginning farmers from 2017 of 11%. Beginning farmers are younger than all farmers, with an average age of 47.1.
Given that another bullet point was the average age of all farmers listed as 58.1, that means new and beginning farmers only have to farm for 11 years before reaching the average. Last week at market I was talking to a fellow farmer who remarked he was turning 50 this year. “It’s hard to believe I started doing this market when I was in my 30’s,” he said.
Today, only 9% of all producers are under the age of 35. You know what that means? Patronize those young farmers you find at farmers markets otherwise they won’t make it to be an average aged farmer.
In 2022, 116,617 farms sold directly to consumers, with sales of $3.3 billion. Value of sales increased 16% from 2017.
Granted, the overall agricultural sales was $543 billion (up from $389 billion in 2017) with $196 billion of that was for exported food and agricultural products.
The 105,384 farms with sales with sales of $1 million or more were 6% of U.S. farms and 31% of farmland; they sold more than three fourths of all agricultural products.
And…
Nearly three fourths of farmland was used by farms specializing in two commodity categories: oilseed and grain production (32%) and beef cattle production (40%).
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that one, however,
The 1.4 million farms with sales of $50,000 or less accounted for 74% of farms, 25% of farmland and 2% of sales.
Can you guess who shows up at the farmers markets? The farmers who are feeding people, that’s who.
Perhaps my favorite statistic out of the NASS news was in 2022, 1.2 million female producers accounted for 36% of all producers. When I began farming that number was less than half as it is today.
All these numbers are only good as the data going into the census which leaves me wondering. While rising sales through farm-to-consumer avenues means more money in the farmers’ pockets, I don’t need a census to tell me this. I only need to look at my own spreadsheet and all the new housing in the vicinity of the market.