Professional Farmer’s Spencer Langford reported that “the variety of U.S. farms shrank by 15,000 in 2025, bringing the full to 1.865 million, USDA mentioned [last week] in its Land in Farms report.”

“This continues a long-lasting pattern of declining farm numbers. Evaluation from the American Farm Bureau Federation famous that farm bankruptcies have been additionally on the rise,” Langford reported. “The most important decline on the state-level was Texas, which misplaced 2,000 operations. No state noticed a rise in farms, however a number of states did point out no change from the prior 12 months.”

Within the Midwest, Illinois noticed a lack of 400 farms to 69,600, Iowa noticed a lack of 500 farms to 86,200, Indiana noticed a lack of 500 farms to 51,500, Nebraska noticed a lack of 200 farms to 44,100 and Minnesota noticed a lack of 1,300 farms to 64,000. Texas stays the state with the best variety of farms, far outpacing all others at 229,000.

“The variety of farms decreased in each financial class apart from farms making 1 million {dollars} or extra in gross sales annually, which noticed a minor enhance of fifty farms. Farms making $1,000-$9,999 in gross sales posted the most important lack of any class, falling by 8,000,” Langford reported. “The overall quantity of land in farms got here in at 873.95 million acres, a 0.3% lower from the 2024 determine. Farmland continues to face stress from financial components similar to urbanization and low or unfavourable returns per acre, significantly in row crops.”

Dairy operations proceed decline in Higher Midwest

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Hope Kirwan reported that “for many years, the variety of dairy farms working in Wisconsin has been declining. The newest licensing information reveals there have been about 5,100 dairy herds working within the state initially of 2026. That’s simply over half of the variety of farms working 10 years in the past, and roughly a 3rd of the variety of farms that have been licensed twenty years in the past.”

“However the decline in dairy herds doesn’t imply there are fewer cows being milked. In actual fact, the variety of cows being milked in America’s Dairyland is about the identical because it was twenty years in the past, and the state’s farmers are producing barely extra milk yearly,” Kirwan reported. “Consolidation continues to be the largest issue shaping the variety of farms within the state, based on Steven Deller, agricultural and utilized economics professor on the College of Wisconsin-Madison.”

“Deller mentioned the excessive prices farmers face to supply milk continues to make it tough for small and mid-size farms to be worthwhile. That’s compounded by the truth that the typical age of farmers within the state continues to get older,” Kirwan reported. “‘For those who’re in your mid-60s, it simply doesn’t make sense to be working a dairy farm with 150 cows,’ he mentioned. ‘That’s demanding work, that’s actually exhausting labor, and also you hit a sure level the place you simply say, ‘I can’t do that anymore.’”

Present state of ag economic system might speed up consolidation

AgWeb’s Tyne Morgan reported that “the U.S. ag economic system enters 2026 in a transparent crop-sector recession, however the deeper disaster is certainly one of confidence. Excessive enter prices, weak costs, coverage uncertainty and eroding belief in information have pushed many producers from planning for profitability into combating for survival. Economists largely view the downturn as cyclical and manageable by means of optimization, whereas farmers expertise it as a structural stress check on their operations and livelihoods.”

“On the state of the economic system itself, there’s little debate: 76% of economists say the U.S. crop sector is in a recession. 74% of producers agree. Greater than 76% of economists imagine situations are worse than a 12 months in the past,” Morgan reported. “Economists warn this surroundings is accelerating consolidation, with 72% anticipating low costs and excessive prices to push weaker operations out of the market with 80% of outlets saying it can enhance consolidation within the trade.“

This text initially appeared on Farmers Advance: Variety of US farms shrank by 15,000 in 2025

Reporting by Ryan Hanrahan, Farmers’ Advance / Farmers Advance

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