2022 Census of Agriculture
The 2022 Census of Agriculture has various statistics that tell an interesting story about current trends in Ag.
USDA produces a census of agriculture every five years (on the 2 and 7 years). 2022 is the most recent census.
Over the next few months, we will periodically refer to the census and explore some of the findings from this census. This post will look at some of the national trends.
The census indicates there are about 1.9 million farmers in the US. However, about 1.3 million of these farmers farm less than 180 acres. About 83,000 farmers farm more than 2,000 acres. Most people assume there has been consolidation at that level, however, this is down from about 85,000 farmers in the last census.
This leads us to observe that there are fewer larger farmers, however, they are farming more acres. The census breaks down farms by 7 different sizes and in all sections there are fewer farmers than the last census.
The total market value of crops grown showed a substantial increase from $388 billion to $543 billion with crops being slightly higher at $280 billion versus $263 billion for livestock. In 2017, crops and livestock were almost exactly equal.
Fertilizer costs exceeded $36 billion which was the highest on record going back to the 1997 census. 2017 fertilizer cost were $23 billion while 2012 costs were about $28 billion. As expected fertilizer costs tend to track crop values.
Cattle inventory are at the lowest levels since 1997 at 88 million down from 94 million in 2022. 2012 levels were slightly higher at 90 million.
Total acreage in farmland has dropped in every census from 1997. 1997 levels were at 955 million acres while 2022 numbers dropped to 880 million acres. As the population continues to increase, we would expect this trend to continue. Also, as more and more large solar projects come online, additional farm acres will be used for that.
These are some of the general trends in Ag. We will revisit the census over the next few months to glean additional information.