Report on New York farming finds growth in smaller farms

New York state had an estimated 36,000 farms, covering 7 million acres, in 2012. That’s largely unchanged from a year earlier, according to a new report from the USDA’s New York field office.

But the report did find some growth in smaller farms in the Empire State.

The number of New York farms with annual sales between $100,000 and $249,999 increased by 300, or 9 percent, to 3,500, while land operated by these farms increased to 1.2 million acres, according to the field office.

New York had 11,300 farms with sales between $10,000 and $99,999 in 2012, up by nearly 5 percent from 10,800 a year earlier. Land they operated totaled 1.9 million acres.

However, the state did lose some of its very smallest farms last year. The number of farms with sales between $1,000 and $9,999 fell by 900, or almost 5 percent, to 18,000 in 2012. Land in farms for this class dropped to 1.35 million acres, the field office said.

Meanwhile, farms with annual sales exceeding $500,000 edged up by 100 to 1,900, while farms with sales between $250,000 and $499,999 remained unchanged at 1,300. The area of land operated by farms in these two groups totaled 2.55 million acres, up by 50,000 acres from 2011, according to the field office.

The number of farms in the United States in 2012 was estimated at 2.2 million, down by 11,630 farms from 2011, according to the USDA. Total land in farms, at 914 million acres, decreased 3 million acres from 2011. The average farm size was 421 acres, up 1 acre from the previous year.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com