Top Nebraska Agriculture Facts From the 2024 Census of Agriculture
Download Nebraska Census of Ag Infographic PDF
As Nebraska’s top industry, agriculture is a significant contributor to the state economy. According to the USDA’s most recent Census of Agriculture, there are 44,479 farms in Nebraska with a market value of agricultural products sold totaling more than $29.4 billion. (The 2022 Census of Agriculture data was released in February 2024 and is the most recent census data available.)
The number of farms in Nebraska has decreased by 4% since 2017 and by 10% since 2002. However, there are still nearly 44 million acres of farm land in Nebraska, and the state’s average farm size is 989 acres.
The market value of crops grown in Nebraska, including nursery and greenhouse crops, totaled more than $14 billion in 2022. The market value of livestock, poultry and their products, including beef, pork, chicken, dairy and eggs, came to $15.4 billion.
What Are Nebraska’s Top Agricultural Products?
According to the most recent available cash receipts (the total amount of crops or livestock sold in a calendar year), Nebraska’s top agricultural products include cattle and calves, corn, soybean, hogs, and milk and other dairy products, to name a few.
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Who Owns Nebraska Farms?
The Census of Agriculture calculates farm ownership by the farm’s legal status for tax purposes. Like many states, Nebraska farms are primarily owned and operated by families or individuals, with 35,983 family farms as of 2022, or about 81% of all farms in the state. Corporations accounted for 4,714 farms, or 10.6%, while 2,980 farms, or 6.7%, are owned by corporations. Other farms, such as estates or trusts, prison farms, grazing associations, American Indian Reservations, etc., make up about 1.8% of farms in Nebraska.
Nebraska farmers are predominantly men. According to the Census of Agriculture, there were 53,919 male farmers in Nebraska in 2022, making up 67% of the state’s total producers. Nebraska’s 26,364 women farmers accounted for 33% of the total.
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How Old Are Nebraska Farmers?
Out of 80,283 farmers in Nebraska, most are over the age of 55. In fact, the average age of a Nebraska farmer is 56.9 years old, up from 56.4 years in 2017.
Just under a quarter of Nebraska farmers (around 24.9%) fall into the age group of 65 to 74 years, and 23.3% of farmers are ages 55 to 64. Farmers ranging from 45 to 54 years old account for 14.8%, followed by farmers ages 35 to 44 (13.8%), then farmers age 75 or older (11.9%). Only 9.6% of farmers are ages 25 to 34, and just 1,354 Nebraska farmers are under 25, or about 1.7%.
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More Nebraska Farm Facts
Though the state counts more than 80,000 agricultural producers, 51% of Nebraska farmers have a primary occupation other than farming. Only about 39,000 respondents to the Census of Agriculture said their primary occupation was farming.
Active duty military members and veterans also account for some farmers, as Nebraska has 5,837 farmers with current or past military service.
Nebraska is home to 313 USDA-certified organic farms, up from 277 in 2017.
Nebraska’s cattle and calf inventory totaled 6,390,191 in 2022.
Nebraska is home to 16,457 colonies of honeybees that produced more than 2.4 million pounds of honey in 2022.
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