The total number of farms in Minnesota in 2017 was 73,200, down 100 farms compared with a year ago, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service’s Farms and Land in Farms 2017 Summary report.

The number of farms in both the $10,000 to $99,999 and the $100,000 to $249,999 sales classes decreased by 200 farms, while the number of farms increased by 200 each in the $1,000 to $9,999 and $250,000 to $499,999 categories. The $500,000 to $999,999 category saw a loss of 100 farms.

Total land in farms in Minnesota in 2017 was 25.9 million acres, unchanged since 2013.

Farms in both the $250,000 to $499,999 and the $1 million and over sales classes showed an increase of 100,000 acres from 2016.

The average farm size in Minnesota in 2017 was 354 acres, up 1 acre from 2016.

The average farm size in the $500,000 to $999,999 sales class increased 19 acres, from 961 acres on average in 2016 to 980 in 2017.

NASS differentiates farm numbers and land in farms by six economic sales classes, with breaks occurring at $10,000, $100,000, $250,000, $500,000 and $1 million. Producers were asked during the 2017 midyear surveys to report the value of sales based on production during the 2016 calendar year.

U.S. farms and land in farms
The number of farms in the United States for 2017 is estimated at 2.05 million, down 12,000 farms from 2016. Total land in farms, at 910 million acres, decreased 1 million acres from 2016. The average farm size for 2017 is 444 acres, up 2 acres from the previous year.

The number of farms in sales classes from $100,000 to $249,999 and $1 million or more increased, while all other sales classes declined. 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 all farms had sales of $500,000 or more.

“Point farms” are farms that did not have the required minimum $1,000 in sales for the year to qualify as a farm, but had sufficient crops and livestock to normally have sales of $1,000 or more. Point farms are assigned a sales class based on the sum of the agricultural point (dollar) values assigned to the quantity of commodities produced but not sold. The 2012 Census of Agriculture showed that 428,810 farms, or 20% of the 2.11 million farms, were point farms. These point farms operated 63 million acres, or 7% of the 914.5 million acres of farmland.

Source: USDA-NASS Midwest Field Office