Field notes

Short reads built on the census numbers, by Audrey Griffin

Each note answers one question about American farms with tables and charts computed from the 2022 and 2017 Census of Agriculture: how big farms are, where the main crops and herds are, how old farmers are, and what changed between the two censuses.

How big is a US farm? Average and median sizeWhy the average farm is 463 acres but the typical one is 72, and where each extreme sits.
The top corn and soybean counties in the USCorn and soybeans cover more US cropland than anything else, yet no county grows more than a sliver of either.
Where America's milk cows are, county by countyA fifth of the national dairy herd lives in ten counties, most of them in California and Idaho.
How old are American farmers? The county pictureThe average producer is 58.1 years old, and more than a third of producers are 65 or older.
Fewer farms: where the count fell and rose since 2017The US lost 141,733 farms between the two censuses, but one county in four gained.
What (D) means in Census of Agriculture tablesWhy USDA withholds some county numbers, how often it happens, and how this site handles the gaps.
The US counties that sell the most farm productsFifty-six counties sold more than $1 billion of farm products in 2022. Nine of the top ten are in California.