ERS Charts of Note

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Across the United States, 8 percent of farms and ranches (153,101 out of 1.9 million) had renewable energy systems in 2022, according to data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture. This was an increase from 7 percent of farms and ranches reporting renewables in the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Renewable energy systems include everything from small-scale systems, such as rooftop solar and small hydro systems, to large-scale systems, such as solar and wind farms, as well as methane digesters, and geothermal systems. Nationally, 11 percent of all farms and ranches in the United States with renewables are in California. Texas is second with 10 percent of the U.S. total, which are located on 6 percent of the farms and ranches in Texas. States in the Southeast have the lowest share of farms and ranches with renewable energy systems, many with less than 1 percent of the U.S. total. States where more than 20 percent of farms and ranches in the State had renewable systems include Hawaii (34 percent), California (26 percent), Massachusetts, and Vermont (both 23 percent). For more Census of Agriculture data, see the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service’s 2022 Census of Agriculture page.

Thursday, September 5, 2024

USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) forecasts inflation-adjusted U.S. net cash farm income (NCFI), defined as gross cash income minus cash expenses, will decrease by $16.3 billion (9.6 percent) to $154.1 billion in 2024. This would come after an NCFI decrease of $52.9 billion (23.7 percent) in 2023 from an all-time high of $223.3 billion in 2022. U.S. net farm income (NFI) is forecast to decrease by $10.2 billion (6.8 percent) to $140.0 billion in 2024. This reduction follows a drop of $43.3 billion (22.4 percent) in NFI in 2023 from an all-time high of $193.5 billion in 2022 (after adjusting for inflation). Net farm income is a broader measure of farm sector profitability that incorporates noncash items, including changes in inventories, economic depreciation, and gross imputed rental income. Despite these declines, if forecasts are realized, NCFI and NFI would stay above their respective 2004–23 averages in 2024. Underlying these forecasts, cash receipts for farm commodities are projected to fall by $23.3 billion (4.3 percent) to $516.5 billion in 2024, primarily because of lower crop receipts. However, a $16.2 billion (3.4 percent) reduction in production expenses is expected to moderate the overall decline. Find additional information and analysis on the ERS Farm Sector Income and Finances topic page, reflecting data released on September 5, 2024.

Thursday, August 29, 2024

U.S. dairy farms vary widely in size, from small (fewer than 50 cows) to large (2,000 or more cows). While many factors can influence a dairy farm’s production cost per unit of milk, such as technology use, management, and input prices paid, farm size can also affect costs. USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates the cost of milk production by dairy herd size based on dairy-specific versions of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), which are conducted every 5 to 6 years. Costs include operating expenditures, such as feed and veterinary care, and allocated overhead costs, such as buildings, equipment, labor, and land, some of which are economic opportunity costs. Based on the past 5 ARMS dairy surveys, the average total production cost per 100 pounds of milk sold has been consistently lower for dairy farms with larger herd sizes than for those with smaller herd sizes. In 2021, the average total cost per 100 pounds of milk sold was $42.70 for herds with fewer than 50 cows, while for farms with 2,000 or more cows, the cost was $19.14. Increased costs by year reflect the reporting of nominal, not inflation-adjusted costs. Lower per unit production costs for larger dairy farms are attributable at least partly to the ability to spread some expenses over greater output and to greater adoption of advanced technologies, management practices, and production systems. For more information, see the ERS report Structure, Costs, and Technology Used on U.S. Dairy Farms, published in July 2024.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

A quarter of all U.S. farm operations participated in USDA direct payment programs in 2022, meaning that they received at least some payment directly from USDA (no intermediaries involved). Data from the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture show the share of operations that received some Federal payments (at a county level) were concentrated in the central United States. Conducted every 5 years by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the most recent census occurred during a year of historically high net farm income so commodity safety net programs—in place to make payments when prices or revenues are low—were not triggered for many commodities. Comparison with 2017 Census of Agriculture shows participation rates in Southwestern and Southern Great Plains counties, while not especially higher in 2022, were higher than those recorded in previous censuses. Meanwhile, participation in many Midwestern counties was lower than in previous censuses. Participation rates are based on receipt of direct payments and do not include crop insurance or loan program participation. Based on data from USDA, Economic Research Service’s Farm Income and Wealth Statistics data product, total payments in 2022 were $16.47 billion, more than 14 percent higher after adjusting for inflation than the $14.4 billion recorded in 2017. More than 70 percent of all USDA direct payments disbursed in 2022 were from supplemental and ad hoc relief for wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, winter storms, and other eligible disasters. This Chart of Note is drawn from the NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture. For more information about the farm sector and USDA programs, see the ERS Farm Income and Wealth Statistics data product and the ERS Highlights from the Farm Income Forecast topic page.

Monday, August 26, 2024

Researchers with USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) examined cover crop use by cow-calf operations and found that more than half of producers who planted cover crops reported harvesting at least some of them. Harvesting cover crops on cow-calf operations is more likely in the Mississippi Portal and Northern Crescent regions and less likely in the Heartland region. Cow-calf operations might plant cover crops to improve soil quality on their cropland and then use the growing crop to provide feed for their cattle either by grazing the growing cover crop or harvesting the cover crop as haylage or silage to feed cattle later. In 2018–20, USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) asked producers how many acres of cover crops they harvested for forage or other on-farm use and how many acres of cover crops were not harvested. Data from the 2017 Census of Agriculture showed that about 11 percent of cow-calf operations reported using cover crops, with the highest rates of cover crop use occurring in the Northern Crescent and Heartland regions (18 percent of operations in both regions). Information on cover crop practices on cattle operations can be found in the ERS report Cover Crops on Livestock Operations: Potential for Expansion in the United States, published in May 2024.

Monday, August 19, 2024

The rates of adoption for cover crops vary across regions and the way land is managed. To illustrate this, researchers with USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) depicted the geographic variation of survey data collected for corn-growing fields in 2021. Land in the Heartland region had adoption rates of around 10 percent for all owner-operated, cash-rented, and share-rented fields. Land in the Northern Great Plains and Prairie Gateway regions had adoption rates of around 4 percent for owner-operated fields and 11 percent for cash-rented fields. The rest of the country (any land outside of the Heartland, Great Plains, and Prairie Gateway Resource regions) had 30 percent cover crop adoption for fields operated by owner-operators and 16 percent of fields operated by cash renters, respectively. No surveyed share-rented fields in the “rest of the country” region adopted cover crops. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, there were 18.0 million acres of cover crops planted in 2022, a number that has grown over the last decade. More information on land leasing can be found in the ERS report Farmland Rental and Conservation Practice Adoption, published in March 2024.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Energy payments to farm operations increased with the number of acres owned. These payments are compensation received by landowners for energy development such as from oil, natural gas, wind, or solar that occurs on their farmland. Researchers with USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) used USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to find the average annual payment made for energy development between 2011 and 2020 to farm operators based on acreage owned. Those who owned more than 1,000 acres received an average yearly payment of $56,797. Those who owned fewer than 100 acres received an average of $12,351, less than a quarter of payments made to the largest farms. Higher payments to larger farms are associated with owners having large tracts of land preferred for energy development. More than 13 percent of farm landowners with greater than 1,000 acres received energy payments between 2011 and 2020, compared with less than 2 percent of landowners with fewer than 100 acres. Read more about the size, frequency, trends, and relative contribution of energy payments to farm operator income in the ERS report The Role of Commercial Energy Payments in Agricultural Producer Income, released in April 2024.

Monday, August 12, 2024

The 2022 Census of Agriculture shows that farms operated by a producer with military service generated 9 percent of the U.S. agricultural production value in 2022. These producers are located throughout the United States but are mainly concentrated in the eastern half of the country. The Census of Agriculture is conducted every five years by USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service and collects characteristics on up to four producers per farm operation. Producers with military service are defined as those who are currently on active duty or have served on active duty in the past. These producers accounted for 9.1 percent of all U.S. farm operators in 2022, down from 10.9 percent in the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Farms and ranches that have operators with military service produced, on average, about $170,000 per farm in 2022, compared with an average of $286,000 per farm for all operations. Information about farm businesses can be found in USDA, Economic Research Service’s America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance.

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Commercial banks and the Farm Credit System together held about 80 percent of farm real estate debt during the last 11 years, making them the primary lenders to the U.S. agricultural sector. In 2022, the Farm Credit System—a nationwide network of borrower-owned lending institutions and specialized service organizations—provided almost half of all the real estate loans made to the sector, and commercial banks provided 32 percent of agricultural real estate loans. USDA’s Farm Service Agency provides loans directly to producers and in 2022 accounted for less than 4 percent of real estate loans. Other lenders include life insurance companies (7 percent), individuals and others (5 percent), and storage facility loans (less than 1 percent). Farmer Mac, which, like the Farm Credit System, is a Government-sponsored enterprise created by Congress to bring capital to agricultural markets, accounted for about 3 percent of total loans. This chart updates information in the USDA, Economic Research Service report Debt Use by U.S. Farm Businesses, 2012–2021, published in June 2024.

Monday, August 5, 2024

Researchers with USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) studied the land cover associated with 34,073 wind turbines installed on rural land between 2012 and 2020. Nationwide, they found that around 96 percent of wind turbines were installed on cropland (56 percent) or pasture-rangeland (40 percent). In the Midwest, 94 percent of wind turbines were installed on cropland. In the Plains, sites were almost equally split between cropland (49 percent) and pasture-rangeland (50 percent). In the West, 69 percent were located on pasture-rangeland and 27 percent on cropland. The Atlantic was the only region with a large share on nonagricultural land; 75 percent were located on forest land. However, only a small share of turbines was in the Atlantic (3 percent), and fewer than 1,000 turbines were on land categorized as forest. Read about the expansion of wind and solar in rural areas of the contiguous United States, the regional distribution of renewable energy development, and the land cover change associated with development in the ERS report Utility-Scale Solar and Wind Development in Rural Areas: Land Cover Change (2009–20), released in April 2024.

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Crop and livestock insurance payouts were substantially higher in the Great Plains and Mountain regions, according to data from the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service’s 2022 Census of Agriculture. Over the period from 2017 to 2022, insurance payouts in these regions were mostly driven by losses from weather-related events. According to U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program historical cause of loss data from USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA), producers in the Great Plains States of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma experienced substantial losses from drought over the period from 2017 to 2022. Of the acreage in that region covered by crop insurance, 58 percent received payouts because of drought loss. Excessive moisture also contributed to production challenges and associated payouts in the Great Plains, and 19 percent of insured acres received payouts because of that issue. In the Mountain Region—Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada—producers received drought-related payouts for 73 percent of covered acres. A combination of losses from drought and, separately, low temperatures resulted in higher insurance payments across the Nation in 2022. After adjusting for inflation, the national average crop and livestock insurance payment for 2022 was $52,819 per operation. This was up 41 percent from the $37,388 average payment per operation in the 2017 census but down 19 percent from the record high of $65,088 in 2012, underscoring the fluctuating dynamics of weather-related insurance payments. The number of operations receiving payment also rose in 2022, to 107,409 (6 percent of the U.S. total) from 103,060 operations (5 percent) in 2017. For more information, see the USDA, Economic Research Service topic page Crop Insurance at a Glance and the Farm Income and Wealth Statistics data product.

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Beef cow-calf farms—operations that raise beef calves at least through weaning—are numerous in the United States, and most are relatively small. Data from USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2022 Census of Agriculture indicated that 55 percent of U.S. farms with beef cows had fewer than 20 beef cows on December 31, 2022, while less than 1 percent had 1,000 or more beef cows. Farms with fewer than 20 beef cows held 9 percent of the national inventory of cows, and those with 1,000 cows or more held 10 percent of the inventory. Farms with 200 to 999 beef cows held 35 percent of the inventory. With a total of 29.2 million beef cows on 622,000 farms on December 31, 2022, the average beef farm had 47 cows. For more information, see the USDA, Economic Research Service report, Structure, Management Practices, and Production Costs of U.S. Beef Cow-Calf Farms, published in July 2023.

Monday, July 22, 2024

More than 70 percent of large-scale, commercial solar development in rural areas occurred on agricultural land, either cropland or pasture-range land. Of the 3,177 solar projects installed between 2012 and 2020, the largest share was on cropland (43 percent). Another 28 percent of solar projects were installed on pasture-range land. Among regions studied, the Midwest had the highest share of solar installations on cropland at 70 percent, followed by the Atlantic at 43 percent and South at 37 percent. In the West and Plains, installations occurred mostly on pasture-range at 60 and 65 percent, respectively. The Atlantic region had the highest share of solar sites on forest land at 23 percent, while the Atlantic and South both had the highest share of solar installations on developed land at 6 percent. Sites in the South were the most diverse of all regions, with 37 percent categorized cropland, 17 percent as forest, 19 percent as pasture-range, and 21 percent categorized as other. Read about the expansion of solar and wind in rural areas of the contiguous United States in the USDA, Economic Research Service report Utility-Scale Solar and Wind Development in Rural Areas: Land Cover Change (2009–20), released in May 2024.

Friday, July 19, 2024

Errata: On July 22, 2024, the note that accompanied the chart was revised to improve clarity. No text or data were affected.

The USDA, National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) 2022 Census of Agriculture shows that producer expenditures on cash rents were heavily concentrated in the upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and California’s Central Valley. In total, producers spent $27.3 billion on cash rent expenses in 2022, or 6.4 percent of total production expenses. This represents a nearly 10-percent increase in cash rents from the 2017 Agricultural Census, after adjusting for inflation. Many farmers rent farmland from landowners for a cash payment. This cash rent reflects the economic returns to land from farming. Cash rent per acre of land is influenced by several factors, such as cash receipts, government payments, land quality, and financing constraints. For more information, see the NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture website. For more information on how farmland cash rental rates vary across regions, see the USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) Land Use, Land Value & Tenure topic page. See also the NASS publication Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Lands and the ERS report Farmland Values, Land Ownership, and Returns to Farmland, 2000-2016.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Cash-renters and owner-operators adopt cover crops at rates higher than share-renters. Researchers with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) explored whether adopting cover crops (a crop grown between two commodity or forage crops but unharvested/terminated with the intention of improving soil health) differed between farmers who owned the land they farmed and those who were renters, whether under a cash- or share-rent agreement. Using data from USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), researchers calculated national-level statistics for five crops. They found that owner-operated cotton fields had the highest rates of cover crop adoption for owned land, with 22 percent of owner-operated cotton fields having cover crops in 2019. Owner-operated fields nominally led cash-rented fields in cover cropping for cotton, corn, and sorghum, but trailed cash-rented fields for soybeans and barley. Owner-operated fields exceeded share-rented fields in cover crop adoption for all five commodity crops surveyed. About 40 percent of farmland in the contiguous 48 States is rented. Information on the use of various rental agreements, as well as conservation tillage and structural practice adoption, can be found in the ERS report Farmland Rental and Conservation Practice Adoption, published in March 2024.

Monday, July 8, 2024

Not all farms use debt to finance their operations, but of those that do, the majority used commercial banks. Researchers with USDA, Economic Research Service examined direct loans reported from five different sources in 2022: the Farm Credit System, USDA Farm Service Agency, commercial banks, trade credit, and other lenders. More than half of each farm type reported loans owed to a commercial bank. Among borrowers, small family farms using debt had the highest proportion receiving financing through other lenders (28 percent). Among all the lending sources, the Farm Service Agency serviced between 8 and 10 percent of farms with loans, making it the least likely to provide a direct loan. Not reflected, however, are actions by the Farm Service Agency to provide a loan guarantee for some of those operations reporting loans from commercial banks and the Farm Credit System. This chart appears in America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance, published December 2023.

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Created in 1916, the Federal estate tax is a tax on the transfer of property to a person’s heirs upon death. In 2023, the Federal estate tax exemption amount was $12.92 million per person, and the Federal estate tax rate was 40 percent. By law, the estate of a person who owns assets above the exemption amount at death must file a Federal estate tax return. However, only returns that have an estate above the exemption after deductions for expenses, debts, and bequests will pay Federal estate tax. Researchers from USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) estimate that 39,988 estates would have been created from principal operator deaths in 2023. ERS forecasts that 330 (about 0.8 percent) of those estates would have been required to file an estate tax return, and 89 (about 0.2 percent) would likely have owed Federal estate tax. Total Federal estate tax liabilities from the 89 farm estates owing taxes are forecast to be $473 million in 2023. The exemption amount increased to $13.61 million per person in 2024, because of an annual inflation adjustment. This chart appears in the ERS topic page Federal Estate Taxes, published in April 2024.

Monday, June 24, 2024

Data from the USDA Census of Agriculture report that farmland values tend to be higher along the coasts and a stretch from Iowa to Ohio, often called the Corn Belt. Lower average county farmland values in the Mountain States (States that encompass the Rocky Mountains) and Great Plains (the area just east of the Rocky Mountains) are likely because of their high share of pastureland, typically valued below that of cropland. Conducted every 5 years by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the Census of Agriculture includes producer responses to questions about their farming operations on a range of topics, including the value of farmland they operate. The national average value per acre of farmland (including buildings) was $3,846 in 2022. Farmland values increased 10 percent after adjusting for inflation (using the Gross Domestic Product Price Index) when compared with the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Farmland tends to be more valuable in States where cropland is more productive and the value of production is higher, such as in the Corn Belt. The map also shows that farmland values increase in counties in the immediate vicinity of urban areas or with higher population density overall, reflecting competition with residential and other nonagricultural land uses. For more details on farmland values, see USDA, Economic Research Service’s Farmland Value topic page. For more details from the 2022 Census of Agriculture, see the NASS Census of Agriculture page.

Monday, June 17, 2024

More than half of dairy operations that plant cover crops reported harvesting all their cover crop acreage for forage or other on-farm use between 2018 and 2020. While not all dairy operations have cropland, many of those who plant cover crops use them to provide feed for their herd, such as by harvesting a cover crop like cereal rye or triticale for silage to later feed to dairy cattle. Cover crops can also be planted and left unharvested to improve water quality and soil health. From 2018 to 2020, the Agricultural Resource Management Survey asked producers how many acres of cover crops they harvested for forage or other on-farm use, and how many acres of cover crops went unharvested. Exclusively harvesting cover crops was relatively more common in the Fruitful Rim and Heartland regions, where 63 percent of dairy operations only harvested acreage of cover crops in each region. The Northern Crescent had a higher proportion of dairy operations that only reported unharvested cover crops (31 percent). Information on cover crop practices can be found in the USDA, Economic Research Service report Cover Crops on Livestock Operations: Potential for Expansion in the United States, published in May 2024.

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

U.S. farms have increasingly relied on agricultural services establishments to undertake production activities, such as soil preparation, planting, harvesting, livestock breeding, providing farm workers, and managing operations, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Economic Census. From 1978 to 2022, establishments in the agricultural services sector in the United States saw a 263-percent increase in the value of their receipts (adjusted for inflation to 2022 dollars), from about $16.3 billion to $59.3 billion. For comparison, the inflation-adjusted value of receipts from farms increased 12 percent over the same period when compared with recently released farm data from USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture. Although the contribution of agricultural services providers to the farm economy has grown, the number of active establishments declined over the same period. There were 10 percent fewer establishments in 2022 than in 1978, according to the Economic Census. The increased concentration within agricultural services is a phenomenon that has also been documented for farms—the number of farms fell 23 percent between 1978 and 2022, from about 2.5 million to 1.9 million. Researchers are able to describe these important trends because, for the first time since 1978, the 2022 Economic Census includes data on businesses that provide agricultural support services. USDA, Economic Research Service researchers supported those efforts to resume data collection of agricultural services and are collaborating with Census Bureau staff on future data releases based on survey responses. For more information on the U.S. farm sector, see the ERS topic page Farm Economy, last updated in September 2023.