* The 2012 Census of Agriculture shows a nationwide drop in land devoted to agricultural production from 922 million acres in 2007 to less than 915 million acres.
- States with the largest percentage declines in land devoted to agriculture were: Kentucky- 6.7 percent, Alaska- 5.4 percent, Georgia- 5.2 percent, Mississippi- 4.6 percent and Wisconsin- 4.1 percent.
- Increases in land in farms were reported in 19 states. The largest percentage gains were in: Maine- 7.9 percent, Connecticut- 7.6 percent, Florida- 3.4 percent, Rhode Island- 2.6 percent, and Virginia- 2.4 percent.
* According to the latest release there are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the U.S. Some findings are revealing:
* Both sales and production expenses reached record highs in 2012. U.S. producers sold $394.6 billion worth of agricultural products, but it cost them $328.9 billion to produce these products.
* Three quarters of all farms had sales of less than $50,000, producing only 3% of the total value of farm products sold while those with sales of more than $1 million — 4% of all farms — produced 66%.
* Much of the increased farm income was concentrated geographically or by farm categories.
* California led the nation with 9 of the 10 top counties for value of sales.
* The top 5 states for agricultural sales were California ($42.6 billion); Iowa ($30.8 billion); Texas ($25.4 billion); Nebraska ($23.1 billion); and Minnesota ($21.3 billion).
* Eighty-seven percent of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals.
* Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were predominantly male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female; and third operators were younger still.
* Young, beginning principal operators who reported their primary occupation as farming increased 11.3% from 36,396 to 40,499 between 2007 and 2012.
* 144,530 farm operators reported selling products directly to consumers. In 2012, these sales totaled more than $1.3 billion (up 8.1% from 2007).
* Farms with internet access rose from 56.5% in 2007 to 69.6% in 2012.
* 57,299 farms produced on-farm renewable energy, more than double the 23,451 in 2007.
* 474,028 farms covering 173.1 million acres were farmed with conservation tillage or no-till practices.
* Corn and soybean acres topped 50% of all harvested acres for the first time.
AND most important of all:
* The largest category of operations was beef cattle with 619,172 or 29% of all farms and ranches in 2012 specializing in cattle.
If you want to look at the data here's the link: 2012 Ag Census Data