US Farm Numbers Drop 8% Since 2018
LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- U.S. agriculture lost thousands of farms in 2025, adding to a seven-year streak that has seen a continued consolidation of the industry, according to the latest farms and land in farms data released by USDA at the end of last week.
Perhaps most striking is that U.S. agriculture lost another 15,000 farms in 2025, bringing the total number of farms from more than two million in 2018 to about 1.9 million in 2025.
Since 2018, the U.S. has lost 158,200 farms at a clip of about 8% in just seven years.
What's more, every farm size category tracked by USDA lost farms except for the largest operations.
USDA said farms with more than $1 million in annual sales were the only group of farms that grew. Those farms gained 850,000 acres in 2025 while all other categories lost land, USDA said.
The report, "Farms and Land in Farms 2025 Summary," shows half of all U.S. farmland is now controlled by farms with $500,000 or more in sales, which represents 9.9% of all farms. Meanwhile, 78.8% of all farms have sales under $100,000, but control just 25.7% of farmland.
The overall farm size in the U.S. reached 469 acres in 2025, according to USDA, an increase from 444 acres in 2018.
Total U.S. farmland decreased by 2.5 million acres in 2025 alone, down to about 874 million acres -- or a loss of about 25 million acres since 2018.
About 48% of all U.S. farms generate less than $10,000 in annual sales, suggesting many are hobby farms and part-time operations.
Not a single U.S. state reported an increase in the number of farms from 2024 to 2025, and two states had significant decreases in number of farms -- Minnesota and Texas.
Texas saw a loss of 2,000 farms, down to 229,000, while seeing its average farm size increase by 5 acres to 546 acres. However, the amount of land in farms stayed the same in Texas at 125 million acres.
In Minnesota, the number of farms fell by 1,300 to 64,000. The state saw the amount of land in farms fall by 100,000 acres while the average size of a Minnesota farm grew from 389 acres to 395 acres.
Interestingly, the number of farms reporting sales of more than $1 million grew in Minnesota from 8,100 in 2024 to 8,200 in 2025.
Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com
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