Top Texas Agriculture Facts From the 2024 Census of Agriculture
In partnership with: Texas Department of Agriculture
Download Texas Census of Ag Infographic PDF
Texas ranks No. 1 in the nation for number of farms and ranches, so it’s no surprise that Texas agriculture makes a huge impact on the state and national economy each year. According to the USDA’s most recent Census of Agriculture, Texas has 230,662 farms with a market value of agricultural products sold totaling more than $32 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 Texas has decreased by 7% since 2017 and by 1% since 2002. However, there are still more than 125 million acres of farm land in Texas, and the state’s average farm size is 544 acres.
The market value of crops grown in Texas, including nursery and greenhouse crops, totaled more than $7.2 billion in 2022. The market value of livestock, poultry and their products, including beef, pork, chicken, dairy and eggs, came to nearly $25 billion.
What Are Texas’ Top Agricultural Products?
According to the most recent available cash receipts (the total amount of crops or livestock sold in a calendar year), Texas’ top agricultural products include cattle and calves, milk and other dairy products, broilers (chickens raised for meat), cotton, and chicken eggs, to name a few.
See More: Texas Agriculture
Who Owns Texas Farms?
The Census of Agriculture calculates farm ownership by the farm’s legal status for tax purposes. Like many states, Texas farms are primarily owned and operated by families or individuals, with 205,473 family farms as of 2022, or about 89% of all farms in the state. Partnerships accounted for 13,566 farms, or 5.9%, while 8,830 farms, or 3.8%, are owned by corporations. Other farms, such as estates or trusts, prison farms, grazing associations, American Indian Reservations, etc., make up about 1.2% of farms in Texas.
Texas farmers are predominantly men. According to the Census of Agriculture, there were 245,585 male farmers in Texas in 2022, making up 61% of the state’s total producers. Texas’ 157,291 women farmers accounted for 39% of the total.
See More: What’s Growing in Texas? Seasonal Produce Calendar
How Old Are Texas Farmers?
Out of 402,876 farmers in Texas, most are over the age of 55. In fact, the average age of a Texas farmer is 59.9 years old, up from 59.2 years in 2017.
Just over a quarter of Texas farmers (around 26.2%) fall into the age group of 55 to 64 years, and 25.6% of farmers are ages 65 to 74. Farmers aged 75 or older account for 15.8%, followed by farmers ranging from 45 to 54 years old (15.7%), then farmers ages 35 to 44 (10.5%). Only 4.8% of farmers are ages 25 to 34, and just 5,549 Texas farmers are under 25, or about 1.4%.
More Texas Farm Facts
Though the state counts more than 402,000 agricultural producers, 62% of Texas farmers have a primary occupation other than farming. Only about 153,000 respondents to the Census of Agriculture said their primary occupation was farming.
Active duty military members and veterans also account for some farmers. Texas has 42,252 farmers with current or past military service.
See More: 10 Texas Agritourism Destinations for Fun on the Farm
According to the census, there are 10,618 Black farmers in Texas who farm 855,704 acres of land across 7,235 farms.
Texas counted 129,760 new and beginning producers in 2022, up from 118,999 in 2017.
Texas is home to 389 USDA-certified organic farms, up from 311 in 2017.
There are 271,049 colonies of honeybees in Texas, which produced 8,497,622 pounds of honey in 2022.
Texas inventoried 12,543,300 cattle and calves in 2022.
See More: Texas Beef Industry is Ahead of the Herd