According to the results from the 2017 agriculture census released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Kansas ranks fifth in production.
The census is taken every four to five years, with the first being conducted in 1840.
Only California, Iowa, Texas and Nebraska top Kansas in farm production. While production numbers are significantly higher compared to 2012, the Great Plains suffered a historical drought that year.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at the results as they relate to Allen County and Kansas as a whole:
There were 145 fewer farms in Allen County in 2017 than in 2012 when the last census was taken. That is a 22.3% decrease. There were 650 farms in 2012 in the county compared to 505 in 2017. Those 505 farms had 239,906 acres being farmed. Statewide there was a 5% drop. Nationwide there was a 3.2% drop in ag production.
Despite that 5% drop in the number of farms in Kansas, there was only a 1% dip in the number of acres farmed in 2017. Kansas farmers covered some 45.8 million acres.
Farms in Kansas averaged 781 acres, which is a 34-acre per farm increase from 2012.
Farms in Allen County averaged 475 acres in 2017, an increase of 26 acres per farm.
Cattle and calf operations decreased from 376 to 299, a 20% decrease. Farms with beef cows dropped by 21% in the five-year span from 343 to 271.
The market value of farmland in the county was $964,120, meaning farmland was going for an average of $2,029 per acre.
Statewide the average age of farmers is 58.1 years old. This is just slightly higher than the national average of 57.5.
In 2017, Allen County farms produced 2,250,124 bushels of soybeans. This was a much better year than 2012, which featured an intense drought, when only 644,296 bushels were harvested.
Including buildings and land used for agriculture, total assets for farms in the county is listed at $486,881,000.
In 2017, 271 operations in the county received $1,578,000 in federal government payouts. This comes out to $5,823 per operation according to the census.
Almost 250 conservation and wetlands operations received $1.147 million in government payouts.
