FEBRUARY 17, 2024:

South Dakota’s number of farms and ranches remained unchanged during 2023, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The number of farms and ranches in the state, at 28,300, was unchanged from 2022. Numbers of farms and ranches in South Dakota with less than $100,000 in agricultural sales was unchanged from a year earlier while operations with more than $100,000 in agricultural sales was also
unchanged.

Land in farms and ranches in South Dakota totaled 42.3 million acres, unchanged from 2022.

The average size of operation, at 1,495 acres, was unchanged from a year earlier.

North Dakota’s number of farms and ranches decreased during 2023, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The number of farms and ranches in the state, at 24,800, was down 300 farms from 2022. Numbers of farms and ranches in North Dakota with less than $100,000 in agricultural sales decreased 400 farms from a year earlier while operations with more than $100,000 in agricultural sales increased 100 farms.

Land in farms and ranches in North Dakota totaled 38.5 million acres, unchanged acres from 2022. The average size of operation, at 1,552 acres, was up 18 acres from a year earlier.

Access the National publication for this release at: https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/5712m6524.

FEBRUARY 15, 2024:

The USDA released the 2022 Census of Agriculture this week (Feb. 13, 2024).

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says some of the results were concerning, especially the number of farms and total amount of farmland across America.

vilsack1 :30 OC…”million acres.”

“In 2017, when we did the survey, there were 2,042,220 farms. Today the survey reports we have 1,900,487 farms. So doing a little quick math, that’s 142,000 fewer farms in five years. The survey tells us that in 2017, we had a little over 900 million acres of land in farming. Five years later, we have 880 million acres, so we’ve lost 20 million acres.”

He put the number of acres into perspective.

vilsack2 :45 OC…”and Colorado.”

“That’s every New England state with the exception of Connecticut in five years. I want to give you a sense of how many farms that is. I’ve been focusing on this issue for the last four or five months because I ran across a report done by Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland In 1981. He was expressing concern about the direction of agriculture because we had changed the method of support, a direction of support, for American agriculture. Well, if you look at the number of farms that were in existence when he issued that warning and compare it to today, we’ve lost 535,000 Farms. Now that’s every farm today in the following states: in North Dakota and South Dakota, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, in Illinois and Iowa, in Nebraska and Oklahoma, and Missouri and Colorado.”

Vilsack says the 2022 Census of Ag is a wake-up call.

vilsack3 :29 OC…”data presents.”

“This survey is essentially asking the critical question of whether as a country are we okay with losing that many farms? Are we okay with losing that much farmland or is there a better way? That’s the importance of this survey. It allows us to take a snapshot in time, allows us to compare what has occurred over the five-year period, and begin to ask ourselves questions about the policy formation and the direction that we need to take in order to correct or deal with some of the challenges that the data presents.”

FEBRUARY 13, 2024:

The United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service released its 2022 Census of Agriculture today (Feb. 13, 2024) and it shows a decline in the number of farms and in the number of acres of farmland in South Dakota, but the size of farms increased.

The data shows there were 28,299 farms in 2022, which is a decrease of 6% from the 2017 Census of Ag. The amount of land in farms reported was 42.3 million acres, down 2% from 2017’s number.

The average size of farm in South Dakota was 1,495 acres, up 4%– or 52 acres– from 2017. Land in farms accounted for 87.2% of the total land area in South Dakota compared to 38.9% in the U.S.

The total value of agricultural products sold in South Dakota in 2022 was $12.9-billion, up 33% from 2017. Of the total value of production, 41% originated from livestock and 59% from crops. Average net income per farm was $159,459, a 95% increase from 2017.

During 2022, the average age of producers was 57.2 years compared to 56.2 years in 2017. The number of young producers, defined as age 34 or less, was 5,382, or 11% of all producers. The number of female producers was 15,910, or 31% of all producers. For the 2022 ag census, data was collected from a maximum of four producers per farming operation.

The Census of Agriculture also showed 82% of South Dakota farms had internet access compared to 79% for all U.S. farms.

Additional resources including Ag Census Web Maps are scheduled to be released in September 2024, while Zip Code Tabulations are scheduled to be released in November 2024. Ranking and Profile tabulations will be available throughout 2024.

In addition to State and County data publications, additional online resources are available such as Quick Stats 2.0 and Ag Census Highlights. All Census data products can be found at www.nass.usda.gov/agcensus/.

FEBRUARY 13, 2024:

First conducted in 1840 in conjunction with the decennial Census and conducted since 1997 by USDA NASS – the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture – the Census of Agriculture remains the most comprehensive agricultural data for every state and county in the nation.