Iowa’s smallest and largest farms have proliferated over the past 20 years, while the number of those the middle is shrinking, the latest U.S. Census of Agriculture shows.
Farms of fewer than 180 acres have increased nearly 12% over the past two decades, according to the census, a comprehensive farm survey the U.S Department of Agriculture conducts every five years.
Experts say that’s because farmers are scaling down in the face of record-high land prices and escalating expenses for seed, fertilizer, tractors and other equipment and products needed to raise crops and livestock.
“Farmers who aren’t getting or inheriting land from their family have to start with a smaller footprint,” said Sally Worley, executive director of Practical Farmers of Iowa, a sustainable agriculture nonprofit. “The capital startup costs of farming are ridiculously expensive. Buying 300 acres” ― around the average size of an Iowa farm ― “would cost millions of dollars.”
At the same time, the number of Iowa farms with 2,000 or more acres spiked 77% from 2002 to 2022, the last year the census covers.