Illinois farm acres drop 2.6%

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Total farms and ranches and average acreage size all decreased in Illinois, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture.

Findings in the quinquennial survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service were released Feb. 13.

The ag census data provide insights into demographics, economics, land use and activities on farms and ranches. The data points are compared to the 2017 ag census.

Here are some data points on Illinois.

• There were 71,123 farms and ranches in Illinois, down 2.1% from 2017, with an average size of 370 acres, down 0.5%, on 26.3 million acres of farmland, down 2.6%. The census defines a farm as “any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year.”

• Illinois farms and ranches produced $26.4 billion in agricultural products, up from $17 billion in 2017. In 2022, farms and ranches received total income of $27.8 billion. With farm production expenses of $17.8 billion, Illinois farms had net cash income of $10 billion. Average farm income rose to $140,625.

• Illinois farms with internet access continued to rise from 76.9% in 2017 to 79.1% in 2022.

• 2,674 Illinois farms sold directly to consumers in 2022, with sales of $53 million. Value of sales increased 19.6% from 2017.

• 11,655 Illinois farms had sales of $500,000 or more and sold $21.8 billion of all agricultural products in the state, and 38,726 Illinois farms had sales of less than $50,000 and sold $327 million of all agricultural products in the state.

• Sales of certified or exempt organically produced commodities reached $120.86 million across 370 farms, compared to $59.72 million from 296 farms in 2017.

• The average age of all Illinois producers was 58.6, up from 58 in 2017.

• There were 32,538 Illinois farmers with 10 or fewer years of experience, with an average age of 46.4.

• The number of Illinois producers under age 35 was 10,632, comprising 8.8% of all producers. The 8,270 Illinois farms with young producers making decisions tend to be larger than average in both acres and sales.

• In 2022, 33,927 female producers accounted for 28% of all Illinois producers.

• There were 6.44 million no-till acres, down slightly from five years ago.

• Cover crop acreage of 881,228 was up 24% from 2017.

• The top five counties by total farm sales were Iroquois, $772.06 million; McLean, $721.16 million; Livingston, $712.57 million; La Salle, $614.17 million; and Champaign, $583.08 million.

• Illinois’ top counties by average sales per farm were Gallatin, $894,987; Lawrence. $783,424; Logan, $699,779; DeKalb, $673,896; and Piatt, $655,989.

Bragging Rights

• The Prairie State was the nation’s top soybean producer with nearly 10.21 million acres across 33,243 farms.

• The state was the leading pumpkin producer in the United States with 18,777 acres from 645 farms.

• Illinois led the nation in horseradish production with acreage totaling 2,323 on 50 farms.

• Corn production was ranked second nationally as 35,190 farms planted nearly 10.42 million acres in 2022.

• Hog production in Illinois ranked fifth in the nation with over 5.204 million head on 1,678 farms.

• Illinois ranked 10th in wheat production, planting 540,232 acres across 4,649 farms.

• With 962,040 head of cattle and calves on 13,017 farms in 2022, Illinois was ranked 31st in the nation.

Procedure

“2022 is the reference year for the latest census of ag. So, prior to that we were working hard to build our list. One thing the census attempts to do is to count every farm of all sizes and all types. So, our list is quite good, but it is not perfect. We work harder and harder on it leading up to the Census of Ag mail out to make sure we’re not skipping over someone,” said Mark Schleusener, Illinois state statistician for USDA NASS.

The first survey mailings were out in December 2022.

“We were pushing hard for internet responses. The internet responses save taxpayer dollars. It saves money for paper and postage. Also, if we get a paper report back, and we welcome any type of response, but then you’ve got to pay someone to key the data into a computer. When farmers and ranchers do that online, they essentially become our data entry person and that saves taxpayer dollars,” Schleusener said.

“Overall, the response was not as good we want. Nationally we had a 61% return rate and 67.5% for Illinois. Of the responses we got nationally, almost 41% were on the internet, up from 24% five years previous.”

Schleusener was asked what survey numbers stood out to him.

“One of the things that I’m finding is Illinois farmers were fortunate in 2022. The prices were excellent and that was across the country. There’s a myriad of reasons for that that are beyond my knowledge,” he said.

“Yields were good in Illinois during 2022, and that was not the case if you go west, especially west of the Mississippi River where it was kind of too dry and the yields weren’t good, but Illinois farmers and ranchers got good yields on their crops in 2022, and they had good prices at the time. That’s pretty rare — the good yield and the good price.”