[Agriculture Fact Book 98]
The 10 major farm production regions in the United States differ in soils, slope of land, climate, distance to market, and storage and marketing facilities. Together they comprise the agricultural face of the Nation.
The Northeastern States and the Lake States are the Nation’s principal milk-producing areas. Climate and soil in these regions are suited to raising grains and forage for cattle and for providing pastureland for grazing.
Broiler farming is important in Maine, Delaware, and Maryland. Fruit and vegetables are also important to the region.
The Appalachian region is the major tobacco-producing area in the Nation. Peanuts, cattle, hog, and dairy production are also important there.
In the Southeast region, beef and broilers are important livestock products. Fruits, vegetables, and peanuts are grown in this region. Big citrus groves, winter vegetable, and sugarcane production areas in Florida are major suppliers of agricultural goods. Cotton production is making a comeback.
In the Delta States, the principal cash crops are soybeans and cotton. Rice, corn, and sugarcane are also grown. With improved pastures, livestock production has gained in importance. This is a major broiler-producing region.
The Corn Belt has rich soil and good climate for excellent farming. Corn, soybeans, cattle, hogs, and dairy products are the major outputs of farms in the region. Other feed grains and wheat are also important.
Agriculture in the Northern and Southern Plains, which extend north and south from Canada to Mexico, is restricted by rainfall in the western portion and by cold winters and short growing seasons in the northern part. About three-fifths of the Nation’s winter and spring wheat is produced in this region. Other small grains, grain sorghum, hay, forage crops, and pastures form the basis for raising cattle and for milk production. In the southern part, cotton is also a major crop.
The Mountain States provide a still different terrain. Vast areas of this region are suited to raising cattle and sheep. Wheat is important in the northern parts. Irrigation in the valleys provides water for such crops as hay, sugar beets, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables.
The Pacific region includes the three Pacific Coast States plus Alaska and Hawaii. Farmers in Washington and Oregon specialize in raising wheat, fruit, and potatoes. Vegetables, fruit, and cotton are important in California. Cattle are raised throughout the region, and California leads the Nation in milk production. In Hawaii, sugarcane and pineapples are the major crops. Greenhouse/nursery and dairy products are Alaska’s top-ranking commodities.
The United States had 2.06 million farms in 1997, down less than 1 percent from 1996. A farm is defined as any establishment from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products was sold or would normally be sold during the year. The number of farms declined annually about 1 percent from 1987 through 1997, except for an increase in 1995 of less than half a percent which was due in part to a change in definition; the overall decline for the period was 7 percent.
Land in farms continues to decline slowly; the total of 968 million acres in 1997 is down 0.2 percent from a year earlier and down 3.1 percent from 1987. Land in farms has declined every year since reaching its peak at 1.206 billion acres in 1954. The number of farms has declined at a faster rate than land in farms, with the average farm increasing from 451 acres in 1987 to 471 acres in 1997.
Farms are commonly classified in size groups based on the total value of their gross farm sales. Data from the annual Farms and Land in Farms report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service show that the greatest number of farms is in the lower sales classes, with over 61 percent reporting gross farm sales of less than $20,000 in 1997. According to the survey, these small farms accounted for only 16.9 percent of the acreage operated. A relatively small number of very large farms produce the largest share of farm sales. Only 2.8 percent of the farms in 1997 were large operations with sales of $500,000 or more, but they operated 16.5 percent of the land. Average farm size increases consistently with sales class, ranging from 65 acres per farm in the less than $2,500 category to 2,773 acres for farms with receipts of $500,000 or more.
Type of organization refers to the farm’s form of business organization. Farms may broadly be classified as individual operations (proprietorships), partnerships, or corporations (family and nonfamily). Agricultural Resource Management Study data indicate that individual operations are the most common type of farm organization. Nine out of ten farms in the 1996 survey were classified as individual operations. Partnerships and corporations make up a very small share of farms. About 89 percent of farm corporations are family corporations, with more than 50 percent of the stock held by people related by blood or marriage.
Individual operations account for the largest share of farmland (71 percent) and gross farm sales (74 percent). Corporate farms have the highest average farm sales. The average value of gross farm sales by corporate farms in 1996 was $246,826, while partnerships averaged $201,205. Gross sales for individual operations averaged $63,159, about one-quarter of the corporate level. Average acreage was also higher for corporate farms (1,165 acres) and for partnerships (856 acres) than for individual operations (373 acres).
Land tenure describes the farm operator’s ownership interest in the land farmed. The major land tenure categories are (1) full owners, who own all the land they operate, (2) part owners, who own some and rent the remainder of their land, and (3) tenants, who rent all of their land or work on shares for others. The majority of farms in the 1996 Agricultural Resource Management Study (53 percent) reported full ownership of the land they operated, while 38 percent owned part and rented part of the farmland they operated. Only 9 percent of operations reported that they rented all of their land.
Part owners generally operate the largest farms, averaging 732 acres in 1996, followed by tenants with 636 acres and full owners with 227 acres per farm. Part owners account for the largest share of acreage operated (61 percent of the total in 1996).
Gross farm sales are also concentrated on part-owner operations (51 percent of gross farm sales in 1996). The average value of gross farm sales for part owners in 1996 was $114,443, about $31,900 less than the average for tenants at $146,335. Gross farm sales for full-owner operations were much smaller, averaging $47,708.
The major uses of U.S. cropland include cropland harvested, summer fallow, land idled in Federal programs, and crop failure. Cropland harvested peaked in 1981 at about 351 million acres. Harvested cropland declined to 287 million acres in 1988 and was expected to reach 321 million acres for 1997. Summer fallow acreage ranges between 22 million and 34 million acres per year. Cropland idled in Federal commodity and conservation programs has ranged from none in 1980 and 1981 to 78 million acres in 1983 and 1988. Crop failure generally varies within a range of 5-11 million acres per year. The noticeable differences are often the result of weather conditions such as the drought in 1988, or the flood and wet weather at planting time in 1993.
In 1983, the sharp decline in cropland harvested was the result of “PIK” (payment-in-kind), a USDA land retirement program that paid for the land retirement with surplus commodities. The idle acreage in 1983 included nearly 49 million acres in the PIK program and more than 29 million acres in the Acreage Reduction Programs and Paid Land Diversion programs.
The harvested acreage of corn in recent years has varied from 51.5 million acres in 1983 to 75.2 million acres in 1985. Wheat acreage has ranged between a high of 80.6 million acres in 1981 to a low of 53.2 million acres in 1988. Barley and oat acreage harvested have been declining since the early 1970's. Acreage has tended to shift away from barley and oats to the more profitable crops. Soybean acreage harvested has fluctuated as the relative prices of soybeans and corn changed and as prices for soybeans in the world market were more or less favorable. Soybean harvested acreage in 1997 of nearly 70 million acres was the second highest on record. Increased planting flexibility provided under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, as well as favorable relative prices, caused many farmers to expand soybean plantings in 1997.
Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land remained relatively steady from 1981 through 1997--slightly above or below 1 percent of the privately owned agricultural land in the United States.
At the end of 1997, foreign persons owned 14.3 million acres--slightly more than 1 percent of the 1.3 billion acres of privately owned U.S. agricultural land (farm and forest land).
Forest land accounts for 45 percent of all foreign-owned acreage, cropland for 17 percent, pasture and other agricultural land for 35 percent, and nonagricultural land for 3 percent.
Corporations own 79 percent of the foreign-held acreage, partnerships own 12 percent, and individuals own 6 percent. The remaining 3 percent is held by estates, trusts, institutions, associations, and others.
About 61 percent of the reported foreign holdings involve land actually owned by U.S. corporations. The law requires them to register their land holdings as foreign if as little as 10 percent of their stock is held by foreign investors. The remaining 39 percent of the foreign-held land is owned by investors not affiliated with U.S. firms.
A total of 57 percent of foreign-held acreage is owned by investors (including individuals, corporations, partnerships, etc.) from Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France (in descending rank order).
Maine is the State with the largest number of acres (3,037,198) owned by foreign persons. Foreign holdings in Maine account for 17 percent of that States’s privately owned agricultural land and 21 percent of all the reported foreign-owned agricultural land nationwide. Four companies own 91 percent of the foreign-held acres in Maine, almost all in forest land. Two of these companies are Canadian, one is a U.S. corporation that is partially French owned, and the fourth is a U.S. corporation that is partially Canadian owned. Outside of Maine, foreign holdings are concentrated in the West and South, each containing 32 percent of all reported foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land.
These findings are based on reports submitted to USDA under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978.
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