Nebraska’s number of farms and ranches declined in 2016, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, but those farms continue to grow.
The number of farms and ranches in the state, at 48,400, was 300 farms fewer than the number in 2015. The average size of an operation, at 934 acres, was up six acres from the year earlier.
The number of farms and ranches in Nebraska with less than $100,000 in agricultural sales declined by 900 farms from 2015, while operations with more than $100,000 increased by 600 farms from the prior year.
Land in farms and ranches in Nebraska totaled 45.2 million acres, unchanged from 2015. In the U.S., the number of farms in 2016 is estimated at 2.06 million, down 8,000 from 2015. Total land in farms was 911 million acres, a decrease of 1 million acres from 2015. The average farm size for 2016 was 442 acres, up one acre from the previous year.
Farm numbers and land in farms are differentiated by six economic sales classes. Farms and ranches are classified into these six classes by combining the sales of agricultural products and government program payments. Sales class breaks occur at $10,000, $100,000, $250,000, $500,000 and $1 million.
The number of farms in the $250,000 to $499,999 sales class increased, while all other sales classes declined slightly. Fifty percent of all farms had less than $10,000 in sales. Eighty percent of all farms had less than $100,000 in sales. Eight percent of farms reported sales of $500,000 or more.
The biggest changes in 2016 land in acres also occurred in the $250,000 to $499,999 sales class, which operated 1.29 million more acres than the previous year. Producers in the $1 million sales class operated on 1.01 million fewer acres in 2016 than the prior year.
Similar to the previous year, in 2016 nearly 31 percent of all farmland was operated by farms with less than $100,000 in sales. Forty-one percent of all farmland was operated by farms with sales of $500,000 or more.
Source: The Grand Island Independent