Data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture reveals new trends in farming and insight into the U.S. farmer demographics, economic and production practices.
Young, beginning principal operators who reported their primary occupation as farming increased 11.3 percent from 36,396 to 40,499 between 2007 and 2012. Farms with Internet access rose to 69.6 percent in 2012 from 56.5 percent in 2007, and Hispanic-operated farms had a significant increase of 21 percent. While organic sales are growing, they accounted for just 0.8 percent of the total value of U.S. agricultural production.
Texas is the third largest state for agricultural sales with $25.4 billion, preceded by California ($42.6 billion) and Iowa ($30.8 billion).
The largest category of operations was beef cattle with 29 percent of all farms and ranches in 2012 specializing in cattle. For the first time, corn and soybean acres topped 50 percent of all harvested acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
To access the complete data series and tools to analyze the information, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov. Census data also is available on the USDA Open Data portal.