Up 37% since 2007: Farming?!
This article (hat tip: Newsvine) in today’s Elkhart Truth surprised me:
The number of farms in Elkhart County grew by 21 percent between 1997 and 2007, but the average size of farms in the county dropped by 26 percent over that same period, according to the USDA agriculture census results, released in February.
I would never have guessed that. Some more numbers:
Here’s a glance at Elkhart County agriculture as reported in the USDA 2007 Census of Agriculture (released this year), compared with 1997.
- 205,755,000: In dollars, the county’s market value of production, up 66 percent.
- 163,295: Acres in farms, down 11 percent.
- 127,245: In dollars, the average market value per farm, up 37 percent.
- 1,617: Farms, up 21 percent.
- 523: Farms between 1 and 9 acres, up more than 21/2 times the 196 here in 1997.
- 101: In acres, the average size of a farm, down 26 percent.
Crazy! Is local, family-based farming staging a comeback? Maybe. Temper the numbers above with the fact that we’re in an county with a lot of Amish farmers, who tend to be able to survive with smaller farms. And sometimes divide farmland between sons. That aside, the average market value per farm is up 37%, which is really impressive. Somehow, farmers are making more money on less land with more farms. Crazy!
