The total number of farms and ranches in South Dakota decreased last year by about 300 from 2013. That’s according to numbers recently released by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
There were 31,700 farms and ranches in the state last year. Numbers of farms and ranches with less than $100,000 in agricultural sales declined by 400 compared to 2013 while operations with more than $100,000 were up by 100.
The size of the South Dakota's farms are triple that of the rest of the U.S. The average size of South Dakota’s farms is just over 1,353 acres. The national average is 438 acres per acre.
Alvaro Garcia, SDSU Extension Agriculture and National Resources Program Director and Professor, joined Dakota Midday and discussed the USDA survey.