June 2019 - 16

CENSUS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14
not to discount small-time growers
who diversify. Sumner gave another
theoretical example of a grower who
might grow 50 acres of apples and 50
acres of several other crops as someone
who can still make some " serious
money " compared to a hobby farmer.
How one classifies the really small
growers depends on perspective.
" They may make a little money at
it, " he said. " Aunt Sally has a few apple
trees and one Saturday a year she has a
yard sale or something where she sells
apples and makes a thousand bucks
selling apples that morning for people.
And that's great, and I'm all for it. I
think it's wonderful. "
As sociology, or marketing, Sumner
said, maybe the roughly 13,000 apple
growers who have orchards less than
one acre - or the 20,000 with less than
5 acres - are good news for bigger
growers. They interact with the public
often and help the industry tell its story.
" Those are our ambassadors, " he
said. " They have a feel for what it takes
to grow something, and it really gives
people a flavor of what it's like. "
And it's the same for many other
fruit crops, Sumner said. Tart cherry
acres were down from 49,785 to 46,449,
while the number of farms increased
from 3,052 to 3,581. The category for
the smallest farms - less than an acre -
grew by more than 700 farms over five
years. And again, the vast majority of
farms had fewer than 5 acres.
He said it's an inevitable result from
the USDA being asked to document
more small farms. He doesn't
fault professionals at the National
Agricultural Statistics Service itself,
who, he said, " do a wonderful job of an
impossible ask. "
But, he said, it is important to
keep the agriculture census in proper
perspective.
" When you read these numbers, you
kind of have to take it with a grain of
salt, " he said. FGN
More census stats
The USDA's 2017 Census of Agriculture spans 6.4 million new
points of information about America's farms and ranches and those
who operate them, including new data about on-farm decision
making, down to the county level.
Here are some statistics the USDA released about farms
nationwide:
* There are 2.04 million farms and ranches (down 3.2% from
2012) with an average size of 441 acres (up 1.6%) on 900
million acres (down 1.6%).
* The 273,000 smallest (1-9 acres) farms make up 0.1% of
all farmland while the 85,127 largest (2,000 or more acres)
farms make up 58% of farmland.
* Just 105,453 farms produced 75% of all sales in 2017, down
from 119,908 in 2012.
* Of the 2.04 million farms and ranches, the 76,865 making $1
million or more in 2017 represent just over 2/3 of the $389
billion in total value of production while the 1.56 million
operations making under $50,000 represent just 2.9%.
* Average farm income is $43,053. A total of 43.6% of farms
had positive net cash farm income in 2017.
* Ninety-six percent of farms and ranches are family owned.
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June 2019

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