In the Status and Changing Face of Ohio Agriculture, professors Shoshanah Inwood and Doug Jackson-Smith analyzed 20 years of data from 1997 to 2017. Here are the highlights from that report.
Farms size can be measured by acreage or sales. Small farms, those with sales under $10,000, represent 53% of all farms generating only 1% of total farms sales in Ohio, down from 3% in 1997. Meanwhile, large farms (with net sales over $250,000) account for only 5% of all Ohio farms, yet their sales account for 80% of all farm sales.
The big story? Medium size farms, with sales between $10,000 and $249,999, don't have the same impact on total sales that they did 20 years ago. The number of mid-sized farms remains relatively stable at 41% of all farms. In 2017, they generated 24% of all sales but that's almost half of what their contribution was in 1997.
There are slightly less than 80,000 farms in Ohio. Since 1997, the number of farms raising poultry has tripled. Ohio also experienced growth in the beef (cow/calf) industry with a 23% increase in farms over the last five years. The number of vegetable and orchard farms, meanwhile, saw an increase, up by 14% and 5% since 1997, respectively.
The number of farms growing corn decreased by 37% in the last 20 years. Since corn production has increased over that same time period, the farm number decline may be explained by consolidation of small to mid-sized farms or improvements in crop yields. The same may be said for farms raising hogs. Their numbers have decreased by 26%, but the production of hogs has increased by 50% possibly reflecting the consolidation of farms.
Farms raising wheat and oats declined by 60% and 80%, respectively, in that same time frame. Dairy farms continue to decline in number, down more than half (42%) in the last 20 years.
Ohio farmers are getting older. The average age is up to 58. Roughly one-third of Ohio farmers are 65 or older. Farmers under the age of 25 represent less than 1% of all Ohio farmers.
The number of female principal farm operators increased by 11% since 2002. Some of this increase can be accounted for due to reporting changes in the census. Previously, the census only allowed one person to be listed as principal operator. Even if a woman was the co-operator of a farm, she may not have been included. With the change, we now see more recognition of women in agriculture.
Since 1997, around 60% of Ohio farmers have relied on off-farm labor to provide additional income to support their livelihoods. A thriving local economy is vital to all Ohioans. Many farmers rely on their off-farm jobs for health insurance and retirement savings. Likewise, only about 42% of farmers listed farming as their primary occupation in 2017, but that number remains relatively unchanged since 1997.
Around 10.2 million acres of cropland are harvested in Ohio. The number of harvested soybean acres have grown by more than 20% since 1997. All other major crop farms saw decreases in that same time frame.
Corn acres are only slightly down by 3%. The acres of wheat and oats are down drastically, 54 and 76%. In the specialty crop sector in the state—fruits, vegetables, and orchard crops—the number of farms have increased but acres harvested are down by 33% over the last 20 years as growers use almost a third less acreage to grow crops than they needed in 1997.
Ohio farmers face a “cost-price squeeze.” This means that the prices they pay for their inputs—such as machinery, fertilizer, and seed—increase much faster than the prices they receive for their products, squeezing their profit margin smaller and smaller. Farm income has declined overall due to increasing prices of inputs. This causes an increasing number of farms to suffer net losses.
Becot, F., Inwood, S., Jackson-Smith, D., & A. Katchova, (2020). The Status and Changing Face of Ohio Agriculture: Summary of Ohio Farm Trends 1997–2017. College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, SENR Technical Report. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.