NUMBER OF MISSOURI FARMS DECLINES BY 2,000

Although Missouri has the second-most number of farms in the nation, it has 2,000 fewer farms today than it had a year ago.

Statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Missouri Department of Agriculture in Jefferson City show that the total number of farms in the state dropped to 102,0000 from 104,000.

Reflecting recent agricultural trends, farms across America are declining in number. Small, single-owner farms have registered the greatest losses and large-producing farms have shown slight gains.

The trend is reflected in the latest Missouri statistics, which show that the number of units producing from $1,000 to $9.999 in annual crop or livestock sales dropped to 53,900 from 54,600 in 1996.

The number of farms producing between $10,000 and $99,999 in yearly sales in the state dropped to 37,500 from 39,200 last year.

The largest annual-sales category -- farms producing sales of $100,000 and over -- registered the only gain, increasing to 10,600 from 10,200 in 1996.

Fifty-three percent of all Missouri farms are in the lowest $1,000-$9,999 category, while 37 percent are in the medium range. Only 10 percent are in the $100,000-and-over classification.

Among the 12 states classified by the USDA as making up the Midwest, Missouri outdistances all the other regional states in the number of farms. Only Iowa with 98,000 farms and Minnesota with 87,000 even came close to the Show-Me State. Neither of those states registered any change in the number of units from 1996 to 1997.

The average farm size in Missouri is currently estimated at 293 acres, up five acres from a year ago and reflecting a continuation of the historical trend of fewer farms and larger average size.

A farm is defined as "any establishment from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were sold or would normally be sold during the year."

Total farmland in Missouri is 29.9 million acres, down 100,000 acres from last year.

The Show-Me State ranks second in agricultural units to Texas, which leads the nation with 205,000 farms, more than twice Missouri's number. The number of Texas farms remained unchanged in the last 12 months.

The number of farms in the continental United States in 1997 is estimated at just over 2 million, down less than 1 percent from 1996. Total land in farms is 968 million acres, also down less than 1 percent from last year.

This decline in farm numbers and land use for agriculture continues to follow historical trends, which have been driven by the continued pace of mechanization and higher costs involved in producing row crops.

The average-size farm nationally was unchanged from 1996, at 470 acres.

Missouri's 102,000 farms provide 23 percent of the state's gross domestic product, supplying between $4.3 to $4.6 billion a year in gross receipts from both cropland and livestock products. Both cropland and livestock receipts each normally exceed $2 billion in annual sales.