Family Farms

I was gathering data on farms for the Texas High Plains for a little project, and I thought these data were interesting (all data sourced from the 2007 Census of Agriculture):

1. There were a total of 18,573 farms for the region.
2. Of those, 92% were family owned and operated.
3. There were 23.1 million acres in farms in the region of which 88% were family owned and operated.
4. The average farm size was 1,244 acres, with farms in the Northern High Plains roughly 30% larger than in the Southern High Plains.
5. Total value of production for the region was about $10.4 billion.

The spreadsheet data are below if you want to see about your county (click to enlarge).  Bottom line...family farms still dominate the overall farm structure in the region, despite how the press portrays it most of the time.

Addendum:  A friend asked a good question...what is the influence of pasture on average farm size.  The answer is quite a bit.  In district 1N, many of those counties have considerable pasture acreage, therefore resulting in higher average farm size in those counties/district.  Keep that in mind as you view these numbers.