Number of Iowa farms declines in 2014

CEDAR RAPIDS - Iowa had 88,000 farms in 2014, down 500 from 2013 and continuing a trend that began in 2010 when the last U.S. Department of Agriculture census was completed.

New data from the Upper Midwest Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service shows the largest decrease in number of farms occurred in the $1,000 to $9,999 annual sales range with a decrease of 400 farms from 27,500 in 2013 to 27,100 in 2014.

Total land in Iowa farms in 2014 was 30.5 million acres, down 100,000 acres from 2013. The drop primarily came from farms in the $500,000 to $999,999 annual sales range, which fell to 8.7 million acres.

Farms in the $500,000-and-above sales class showed a decrease from 12.4 million acres in 2010 to 10 million acres in 2014.

The average farm size in Iowa in 2014 was 347 acres, up an acre from 2013. The average farm size in the $1 million and over sales class increased 77 acres from 1,284 acres in 2013 to 1,301 acres in 2014.

The number of farms in the United States in 2014 was estimated at 2.08 million, down 18 thousand farms from 2013. Total land in farms, at 913 million acres, decreased 1.03 million acres from 2013.

The average farm size for 2014 is 438 acres, up 3 acres from the previous year.

Producers were asked during the 2014 midyear surveys to report the value of sales based on production during the 2013 calendar year. Production or commodity price changes in 2013 resulted in the total value for virtually all livestock and livestock products to increase while the value of most crops declined.

The value of vegetable, fruit, and tobacco crops increased.