WASHINGTON – New data released today by the Department of Agriculture show that smaller farms are falling further behind their larger neighbors.
The Census of Agriculture, which is released by the USDA every five years, found:
- The total number of farms fell, from 2 million in 2017 to 1.9 million in 2022.
- Many of the farms that failed between 2017 and 2022 were those farms with farm sales between $100,000 and $500,000, or farms with farm sales less than $10,000.
- The number of farms with farm sales greater than $1 million increased from 79,386 in 2017 to 107,742 in 2022.
- The number of farms with farm sales greater than $5 million nearly doubled from 8.972 in 2017 to 16,226.
- While the cost of farming increased, the total value of farm products sold increased from $388 billion to $543 billion.
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