The number of farms in Arkansas dropped by about 2,500 while total farmland increased by 78,000 acres between 2012 and 2017, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture released Thursday.
The census, conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, counted 42,625 farms and ranches in Arkansas, down from 45,071 in 2012. It also reported that the size of the average farm in the state dropped by 20 acres, to 306. The USDA defines a farm as an agricultural concern that produces more than $1,000 in annual sales.
The release of the report had been set for Feb. 21 but was delayed because of the 35-day partial government shutdown.
"The decrease in the number of farms follows the same trend of the past several years, but the increase in total acreage reverses a trend," said Michael Klamm, regional deputy director of the USDA's National Agriculture Statistics Service. Based in Little Rock, the office covers Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The state lost more than 630,000 acres of farmland between 2002 and 2007 and another 60,000 acres between 2007 and 2012 because of a significant increase in urbanization in the northwest, northeast and central regions of Arkansas, researchers said at the time.
"We don't get too much into the 'why' certain segments change, because we're just the collector of the information," said Klamm, who has worked on census data for about 18 months since collecting information from farmers ended in 2017. "Obviously, there's a lot of information in there," he said.
Klamm noted significant increases in the number of younger farmers and small farms.
The number of farmers under age 35 who were identified as primary producers increased from 2,674 to 6,065.
The number of the small farms -- of 1 to 9 acres -- jumped from 1,918 to 2,520, Klamm noted.
"That's a pretty significant increase," largely brought on by the increase in the number of younger people getting into farming, Klamm said. "We know farming's expensive, so they're starting out small."
Farms of 50 acres or less make up 30 percent of the state's total but just 2 percent of total farm acreage. The largest farms -- of 2,000 acres or more -- make up just 3 percent of the total number but 38 percent of the total acreage. The number of farms of more than 5,000 acres increased from 184 to 227.
The number of Arkansas farms that produced more than $100,000 in sales dropped from 7,506 to 6,973.
Klamm said livestock and poultry sales -- but especially in poultry -- typically are responsible for 60 percent of the Arkansas agriculture market value.
But, because of record-high commodity prices, the $9.7 billion in agriculture sales reported in the 2012 Census was nearly split evenly between row crops and livestock and poultry, Klamm said. Total crop sales in Arkansas increased from $2.9 billion to more than $4.8 billion between 2007 and 2012.
When commodity prices later tanked, crop sales dropped to $3.6 billion for the 2017 Census.
Sales from livestock and poultry increased from $4.9 billion to $6 billion from 2012 to 2017, reflecting the expansion of the poultry industry into northeast Arkansas. Livestock and poultry sales now account for $6 billion, or about two-thirds, of the state's $9.6 billion in agricultural sales.
Nationally, the census reported 2 million farms and ranches, down 3.2 percent from 2012. Some 85,000 large farms, defined by the USDA as those of 2,000 acres or more, make up 58 percent of the nation's farmland. About 105,000 farms produced 75 percent of all sales in 2017, down from nearly 120,000 such farms in 2012.
"We can all use the Census to tell the tremendous story of U.S. agriculture and how it is changing," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement accompanying the census release. "As a data-driven organization, we are eager to dig in to this wealth of information to advance our goals of supporting farmers and ranchers, facilitating rural prosperity, and strengthening stewardship of private lands efficiently, effectively, and with integrity."
Business on 04/12/2019