Over 1M pigs call this region home

Across the nation, the average farmer is growing older, the number of medium-sized farms is shrinking and the agriculture industry is consolidating.

These trends are documented in the latest release earlier this month of the every-five-year Census of Agriculture, conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service and overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But the census also contains a trove of data just on Iowa and its 99 counties. This census is for 2017; the previous census was for 2012.

Here is some of what the census found about Iowa and counties in and near the Corridor:

STATE RANKING

In terms of total sales, Iowa's top five ag products were in this order: 1) grains, oilseeds and dry beans (including soybeans); 2) hogs and pigs; 3) cattle and calves; 4) poultry and eggs; 5) milk from cows.

Number of farms

Statewide: 86,104

Benton: 1,148

Cedar: 933

Iowa: 970

Johnson: 1,257

Jones: 1,110

Linn: 1,374

Acres under farming

Statewide: 30,563,878

Benton: 420,639

Cedar: 340,387

Iowa: 346,569

Johnson: 304,239

Jones: 343,688

Linn: 324,50

Average size of farm

Statewide: 355 acres

Benton: 366 acres

Cedar: 365 acres

Iowa: 357 acres

Johnson: 242 acres

Jones: 310 acres

Linn: 236 acres

Market value of AGRICULTURE products

Statewide: $28.96 billion

Benton: $347,724,000

Cedar: $321,521,000

Iowa: $180,894,000

Johnson: $219,619,000

Jones: $287,999,000

Linn: $218,760,000

Inventory of egg-laying chickens

Statewide: 56,554,774

Benton: 1,434

Cedar: 2,289

Iowa: 1,4327

Johnson: 204,387

Jones: 1,317

Linn: 2,167

INVENTORY OF cattle and calves:

Statewide: 3,950,920

Benton: 36,319

Cedar: 23,518

Iowa: 11,274

Johnson: 28,657

Jones: 66,719

Linn: 30,793

hogs and pigs INVENTORY

Statewide: 22,730,540

Benton: 254,733

Cedar: 362,144

Iowa: 129,013

Johnson: 90,685

Jones: 108,671

Linn: 67,026

BUSHELS OF CORN (USED for grain)

Statewide: 2.58 billion

Benton: 38,997,592

Cedar: 35,632,406

Iowa: 22,643,357

Johnson: 24,916,901

Jones: 34,423,792

Linn: 31,403,055

BUSHELS OF SOYBEANS

Statewide: 554 million

Benton: 9,265,467

Cedar: 7,352,498

Iowa: 5,747,487

Johnson: 5,859,643

Jones: 4,518,223

Linn: 5,980,678