Average Farm Size Increasing, Number of Farms Decreasing

(WASHINGTON, DC) USDA released their final estimates for Farms and Land in Farms for 2018 on Thursday. According to the report, the number of farms in the United States is estimated at 2.029 million – down 12,800 farms from 2017. Total land in farms is just under 900 million acres, a loss of about 900 thousand from the previous year. The average farm size for 2018, however, is slightly higher than in 2017, 443 acres, up two acres. The number of medium-sized farms (between $500 thousand and $1 million in sales) increased while all other sales classes declined. Fifty-one percent of all farms had less than $10,000 in sales. Eighty-two percent of all farms had less than $100,000 in sales. Seven percent of all farms had sales of $500,000 or more.