Farm statistics

In 1910 there were 6,406,000 farms and 10,174,000 family workers; In 2000 there were only 2,172,000 farms and 2,062,300 family workers. The share of U.S. farms operated by women has risen steadily over recent decades, from 5 percent in 1978 to 14 percent by 2007.

In the United States, there are over three million migrant and seasonal farmworkers; 72% are foreign-born, 78% are male, they have an average age of 36 and average education of 8 years. Farmworkers make an average hourly rate of $9–10 per hour, compared to an average of over $18 per hour for nonfarm labor. Their average family income is under $20,000 and 23% live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level. One-half of all farmworker families earn less than $10,000 per year, which is significantly below the 2005 U.S. poverty level of $19,874 for a family of four.

In 2007, corn acres are expected to increase by 15% because of the high demand for ethanol, both in and outside of the U.S. Producers are expecting to plant 90.5 million acres (366,000 km²) of corn, making it the largest corn crop since 1944.

Agriculture is a major industry in the United States, which is a net exporter of food. As of the 2007 census of agriculture, there were 2.2 million farms, covering an area of 922 million acres (3,730,000 km2), an average of 418 acres (169 hectares) per farm. Although agricultural activity occurs in every state in the union, it is particularly concentrated in the Great Plains, a vast expanse of flat, arable land in the center of the nation in the region around the Great Lakes known as the Corn Belt.

Major agricultural products

Satellite image of circular crop fields characteristic of center pivot irrigation in Kansas (June 2001).

Tonnes of United States agriculture production, as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the U.N. in 2003 and 2013 (ranked roughly in order of value):

Millions of Tonnes in	2003	2013
Corn	256.0	354.0
Cattle meat	12.0	11.7
Cow's milk, whole, fresh	77.0	91.0
Chicken meat	14.7	17.4
Soybeans	67.0	89.0
Pig meat	9.1	10.5
Wheat	64.0	58.0
Cotton lint	4.0	2.8
Hen eggs	5.2	5.6
Turkey meat	2.5	2.6
Tomatoes	11.4	12.6
Potatoes	20.8	19.8
Grapes	5.9	7.7
Oranges	10.4	7.6
Rice, paddy	9.1	8.6
Apples	3.9	4.1
Sorghum	10.4	9.9
Lettuce	4.7	3.6
Cottonseed	6.0	5.6
Sugar beets	30.7	29.8

The only other crops to ever appear in the top 20 in the last 40 years were, commonly: tobacco, barley, and oats, and, rarely: peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Alfalfa and hay would both be in the top ten in 2003 if they were tracked by FAO.

Crops

Value of production

Rice paddy, California

Major Crops in the U.S.	1997 (in US$ billions)	2014 (in US$ billions)
Corn	$24.4	$52.4
Soybeans	$17.7	$40.3
Wheat	$8.6	$11.9
Alfalfa	$8.3	$10.8
Cotton	$6.1	$5.1
Hay, (non-Alfalfa)	$5.1	$8.4
Tobacco	$3.0	$1.8
Rice	$1.7	$3.1
Sorghum	$1.4	$1.7
Barley	$0.9	$0.9
Source	1997 USDA – NASS reports,	2015 USDA-NASS reports,

Note alfalfa and hay are not tracked by the FAO and the production of tobacco in the United States has fallen 60% between 1997 and 2003.

Yield

Heavily mechanized, U.S. agriculture has a high yield relative to other countries. As of 2004:

• Corn for grain, average of 160.4 bushels harvested per acre (10.07 t/ha)
• Soybean for beans, average of 42.5 bushels harvested per acre (2.86 t/ha)
• Wheat, average of 43.2 bushels harvested per acre (2.91 t/ha, was 44.2 bu/ac or 2.97 t/ha in 2003)

Livestock

Density of cattle and calves by county in 2007.

The major livestock industries in the United States:

• Dairy cattle
• Beef cattle
• Pig
• Poultry
• Seafood
• Sheep

U.S. livestock and poultry inventory

Type	1997	2002	2007	2012
Cattle and calves	99,907,017	95,497,994	96,347,858	89,994,614
Hogs and pigs	61,188,149	60,405,103	67,786,318	66,026,785
Sheep and lambs	8,083,457	6,341,799	5,819,162	5,364,844
Broilers & other meat chickens	1,214,446,356	1,389,279,047	1,602,574,592	1,506,276,846
Laying hens	314,144,304	334,435,155	349,772,558	350,715,978

Goats, horses, turkeys and bees are also raised, though in lesser quantities. Inventory data is not as readily available as for the major industries. For the three major goat-producing states—Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas—there were 1.2 million goats at the end of 2002. There were 5.3 million horses in the United States at the end of 1998. There were 2.5 million colonies of bees at the end of 2005.

Farm type or majority enterprise type

Farm type is based on which commodities are the majority crops grown on a farm. Nine common types include:

• Cash grains includes corn, soybeans and other grains (wheat, oats, barley, sorghum), dry edible beans, peas, and rice.
• Tobacco
• Cotton
• Other field crops includes peanuts, potatoes, sunflowers, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, broomcorn, popcorn, sugar beets, mint, hops, seed crops, hay, silage, forage, etc. Tobacco and cotton can be included here if not in their own separate category.
• High-value crops includes fruits, vegetables, melons, tree nuts, greenhouse, nursery crops, and horticultural specialties.
• Cattle
• Hogs
• Dairy
• Poultry and eggs

One characteristic of the agricultural industry that sets it apart from others is the number of individuals who are self-employed. Frequently, farmers and ranchers are both the principal operator, the individual responsible for successful management and day-to-day decisions, and the primary laborer for his or her operation. For agricultural workers that sustain an injury, the resultant loss of work has implications on physical health and financial stability.

Industry

Historically, farmland has been owned by small property owners, but as of 2017 institutional investors, including foreign corporations, had been purchasing farmland. In 2013 the largest producer of pork, Smithfield Foods was bought by a company from China.

As of 2017, only about 4% of farms have sales over $1m, but these farms yield two-thirds of total output. Some of these are large farms that have grown organically from private family-owned businesses.