Farm406

More Big Farms, Fewer Small Farms? By Anton Bekkerman Depends on Where You Live Aer over a year in waiting, results of the 2017 Census of Agriculture were finally released by the USDA. One of the biggest and most consistent stories that followed was that the number of large and small farms increased, but the number of mid-sized farms continued to trend downward. e big caveat with these numbers, however, is that they represent the landscape across the entire United States. And if you're in any way familiar with agricultural production in the United States, you know that the overall U.S. story might not be very characteristic of what you're seeing in your area. Changes in the number of operations by size provides a great example of the differences that exist across the United States. Instead of looking at total U.S. statistics, I decided to map changes in the number of operations by county. Specifically, I calculated and mapped the percent change in operation numbers by three categories—smaller farms (less than $50,000 in farm sales), medium- size farms ($50,000–$500,000 in farm sales), and large farms (over $500,000 in farm sales) e first figure (small farms) shows that across most of the country, there were relatively moderate (0–25%) reductions in the number of small farms. However, growth in the number of small farms primarily occurred in the Ohio Valley and Appalachian Mountains, upper Midwest, and South and Southeast regions. e greatest growth in the number of small farms occurred in the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest regions. Medium-sized farms also experienced heterogeneous changes across the United States. Moreover, areas experienced more extremes; that is, either larger decreases in the number of medium- sized farms or larger increases of farms of that size. e data also show some suggestive evidence that GPH #1 Percent Change in Number of Small Farms by County Notes: Small farms are defined as those with less than $50,000 in farm sales GPH #2 Percent Change in Number of Medium-Size Farms by County Notes: Medium-size farms are defined as those with $50,000–$500,000 in farm sales farm406 18

• Cover