Number of Farms Falls in State, U.S.

The law of gravity simply doesn’t apply to farming in Oklahoma or across the nation anymore. What goes up just keeps going up.

And what doesn’t go up sometimes simply goes away.

A federal report released this month indicates that the number of farms — particularly smaller operations — continues to drop by the thousands every year.

The number of Oklahoma’s high-dollar farms, however, has expanded by 400 over this decade, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"The large farms keep getting larger," said Wilburt Hundl, head of the USDA’s state statistical office. "The very small farms keep getting smaller."

The numbers don’t lie. In 2001, Oklahoma had 52,300 farms that generated $9,999 or less in annual revenue; the number of farms was down by 2,000 in 2007.

The ratio of the state’s smallest farms to the overall industry dropped from 62.3 percent seven years ago to 61 percent last year, based on USDA figures.

Size more than matters in modern agriculture — it’s survival. The Oklahoma farms that made a minimum of $500,000 in revenue leaped from only 1,100 in 2001 to 1,500 last year.

What’s driving the exodus is higher fuel, fertilizer, equipment and land expenses, industry experts say. The small-time producer sometimes gets out while the getting is good.

"It’s the part-time farmers who have employment off the farm," said Kim Anderson, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University. "They’re renting out to the bigger operations.

"The hassle just gets to be more than it’s worth."

The small-time farmer also is being cut out of the ever- shrinking piece of the pie that is available land, officials say. Real estate and business development takes more and more land out of commission, so to speak, so larger farms are more able to absorb what’s left.

"It only makes sense," Hundl said. "The total number of farms shrinks and the average size grows."

The shrinkage is most obvious nationwide. The total number of U.S. farms dropped to 2.075 million in 2007 from 2.088 million one year earlier. For example, during that period the country lost 30,000 farms with sales in the range of $1,000 to $9,999.

Part of this shift, ironically, is good economic news, Anderson added. Higher general prices for wheat, corn and cattle have elevated many farms into higher income brackets.

But fuel and feed expenses mean you’ve got to get big to get better.

"The cost-price squeeze reduces profit margin," Anderson said. "They have to control more assets."

Another phenomenon has spurred farm growth, according to reports. The immense development in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has pushed many Texas farmers north of the Red River, Anderson said.

Texas farmers receive more money per acre for their original plots, so they can invest in a greater number of Oklahoma acres.

"You’ve got to get more acres," Anderson said.

This overall trend, of course, didn’t start only a decade ago, he pointed out. Before the Industrial Revolution, the overwhelming majority of Americans were employed in agriculture. Only about 2 percent are now.

The good news is that bigger and fewer farm operations are basically staying true to their roots.

"Farms are getting larger, but they’re still family operations," Anderson said. "I don’t see a mass increase in corporations."

Oklahoma farms: How many and how much

Number of farms

Sales class__ 2001__ 2003 __ 2005__ 2007

$1,000 – $9,999 __ 52,300 __ 52,000__ 51,000 __ 50,300

$10,000 – $99,999 __ 25,300__ 24,900 __ 25,200__ 25,200

$100,000 – $499,999 __ 5,300__ 5,400__ 5,500__ 5,500

$500,000 -plus__ 1,100 __ 1,200__ 1,300__ 1,500

All farms__ 84,000__ 83,500 __ 83,000__ 82,500

Rod Walton 581-8457