The total number of farms in Minnesota in 2018 was 68,500, down 300 farms compared to last year’s numbers according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service's Farms and Land in Farms 2018 Summary report.

The largest decrease came from the $1,000 to $9,999 sales class, which decreased by 200 farms.

Total land in farms in Minnesota in 2018 was 25.5 million acres, unchanged since last year.

Farms in the $250,000 to $499,999 sales class showed an increase of 100,000 acres, while farms in the $1,000,000 and over sales class showed a decrease of 100,000 acres from 2017.

The average farm size in Minnesota in 2018 was 372 acres, up one acre from 2017. The average farm size in the $250,000 to $499,999 sales class increased 17 acres and the average farm size in the $1,000,000 and over sales class increased 20 acres on average in 2018.

United States farms

The number of farms in the United States for 2018 is estimated at 2,029,200, down 12,800 farms from 2017.

Total land in farms, at 899,500,000 acres, decreased 870,000 acres from 2017.

The average farm size for 2018 is 443 acres, up 2 acres from the previous year.

Farm numbers and land in farms are differentiated by six economic sales classes. Farms and ranches are classified into these six sales classes by summing the sales of agricultural products and government program payments. Sales class breaks occur at $10,000, $100,000, $250,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000.

Producers were asked during the 2018 mid-year surveys to report the value of sales based on production during the 2017 calendar year.

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 2017 Census of Agriculture showed that 471,593 farms or 23% of the 2.04 million farms were Point Farms. These Point Farms operated 59.2 million acres or nearly 7% of the 900.2 million acres of farmland.

Number of farms declined by 12,800 from 2017. The number of farms in Sales Class $500,000 to $999,999 increased while all other sales classes declined. Fifty-one percent of all farms had less than $10,000 in sales. Eighty-two percent of all farms had less than $100,000 in sales. Seven percent of all farms had sales of $500,000 or more.

Source: USDA NASS Upper Midwest Regional Office, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.