2012 Census of Agriculture

Detailed data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture are now available. The survey results provide very detailed information about agriculture at the county, state and national levels. The data provides ag retailers, crop consultants and farm managers a look at their customer base at a local to national scale. Some key statistics include:

• There were 2.1 million farms in the U.S. in 2012 covering 914.5 million acres. (A farm is any operation that sells or could have sold $1,000 worth of farm products.)
• Seventy-five percent of the farms have gross revenue of $50,000 or less.
• Nearly 900,000 farms had sales of less than $5,000 and average incomes of $1,500.
• Four percent of farms had sales of $1 million or more and they accounted for 66 percent of total market value. (Keep in mind crop prices were record high in 2012.)
• Thirty-nine percent of cropland was rented in 2012.
• The average age of farmers is 58.3 – up from 57.1 in 2007.
• Thirty percent of farm operators are women.
• More than 20 percent of farmers have operated their farms for less than 10 years.
• California is the top sales state followed by Iowa, Texas, Nebraska and Minnesota.
• Nearly 70 percent of farms have internet access – but 10 percent of those still use dial-up.

The Census of Agriculture data can be found at the nass.usda.gov website.

The farm has gotten gigantic, then there is the rest of us!  Four percent of the 2.1 million "farms" account for 2/3 of agricultural production!

The value of Ohio's agricultural products were worth $10 billion in 2012, up 42 percent from 2007, and more farmers are tapping into that value with direct sales.

Sales of agricultural products were worth $10 billion in 2012, ranking Ohio 13th in the country, according to preliminary 2012 Census of Agriculture numbers released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That was an increase of 42 percent from the 2007 survey, a rate that was ahead of the country’s 33 percent growth.

The value of Ohio’s crop sales increased 61 percent, and livestock and poultry sales were up 17 percent.

Ohio also was among the top 10 states for number of farms (7th) and value of crop sales (10th) in 2012. The state made neither list in 2007.

In other ways, the farming picture in Ohio was mostly stable. The number of farms and farm operators decreased slightly, and farmers got a little older on average, but the amount of farm land in Ohio actually increased a bit from 2007.  Any guesses how that could happen?

Census data for individual counties will be released later.

Most things for us here in Ohio are relatively steady as farmers are looking for ways to expand their markets and diversify their operations.

Ed Winkle