By Alvaro Garcia
The USDA recently published the Farms and Land in Farms—2014 Summary which includes the average farm size by sales class in each state and the US. Farm numbers and size follow similar trends when compared to livestock and other operations, with numbers dwindling while size increases (Figure 1). In 2014 there were 2.08 million farms in the US averaging 438 acres and farming a total of 913 million acres. The USDA classifies farm numbers and land in farms in six economic classes by adding up sales of agricultural products and government program payments. These classes are as follows: $1,000-$9,999 (1), $10,000+ (2), $100,000+ (3), $250,000+ (4), $500,000+ (5), and $1,000,000+ (6). Between 2013 and 2014 the only group that declined in numbers was group 1 with all others increasing.
Groups 3 and 5 had the largest increases with 1.4% and 3.6%, respectively. The majority of farms in the US are smaller operations, with 51% in group 1, and 80% when groups 1 and 2 are combined. There is slightly over 1 million farms in group 1. When group 2 is combined with 1 the number climbs to 1.66 million. Groups 3 through 6 on the other hand constitute only 19.6% of the total. Average acres farmed by each group are: 1) 86 acres, 2) 312 acres, 3) 889 acres, 4) 1,290 acres, 5) 1,887 acres, and 6) 2,655 acres. One additional interesting figure is the change in acres farmed by the different groups. Groups 5 and 6 increased the acreage farmed significantly. Groups 1 and 3 had the largest reductions with -4.5% and -1.5%, respectively. Interestingly enough there were negligible changes for groups 2 and 4 (less than -0.01).
South Dakota Farms and Land in Farms
South Dakota is clearly an agricultural state, farm size triples that of the rest of the US with one farm every 25 people compared to one every 154 for the nation. In 2014 the state had 31,700 farms in 43.3 million acres farmed with an average farm size of 1,353 acres.
When looked by sales class Group 1 had 8,300 farms (26.1% of the total), farmed 1.2 million acres, with a farm size of 145 acres on average. This group decreased by 6.7 % since last year with acres per farm remaining almost unchanged. Group 2 had 9,700 farms (30.6% of the total) during 2014, farmed 5.1 million acres, and had an average farm size of 526 acres. Group 2 in South Dakota farmed 68.6% more land per operation for the same amount of sales compared to the rest of the country. In spite of this “inefficiency” however this group increased farm numbers by 2.1% since 2013. Group 3 with 4,400 farms (13.9% of the total) showed a retraction (-2.2%) in numbers from the year before. This group is responsible for farming 5.5 million acres with an average size of 1,250 acres per farm. Farms in Group 4 with 3,500 (11% of the total) dropped by 7.9%, farmed 7.2 million acres and had on average 2,057 acres. Farms in Group 5 with 3,300 (10.4% of the total) increased by 13.7%, farmed 11.2 million acres and had on average 3,394 acres. Finally, Group 6 with 2,500 (7.9% of the total) increased by 4.2%, farmed 13.1 million acres and had on average 5,240 acres.
From this analysis it can be inferred that in South Dakota it is again Group 1 (-6.7%) which has the greatest risk to its sustainability. Group 2 on the other hand showed an interesting, encouraging growth since 2013. In spite of South Dakota larger operations, when classified by sales groups 1 and 2 combined at 56.7% still represent more than half of the total farms in the state. Oddly enough it was the middle sized farms that took the greatest hit in numbers. Both groups 3 and 4 showed quite a significant reduction with -2.2 and -7.9, respectively. Similar to the rest of the country groups 5 and 6 increased and were responsible for more acres farmed, mostly because more farms entered this group and not because of a significant increase in farm size.
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