The 2022 U.S. Census of Agriculture, which was released in early 2024, provides insight into trends in Oklahoma agriculture.
From the summer 2024 issue of Oklahoma Country magazine
By Mickinzi Ferguson • Photo by Dustin Mielke
Earlier this year, the United States Department of Agriculture released the 2022 Census of Agriculture, a nationwide count of farms and ranches and those who operate them. This data is released every five years and focuses on land usage, ownership, production practices, incomes and expenses. The census counts all farms and ranches that raise or sell $1,000 or more of products in the census year.
Troy Marshall, Oklahoma state statistician for the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, shared his insights to the data collected respective to Oklahoma. He noted it is essential to understand how the 2022 drought influenced the data collected during this census.
Amy Hagerman, Oklahoma State University agricultural economics associate professor, said that 64% of Oklahoma showed extreme or exceptional drought (D3 or D4) according to the data collected by the National Center for Environmental Information. The southern plains were already experiencing an 81.7% drought area by the beginning of 2022. By March 2022, the drought area had expanded to 90.1% and peaked July 26 at an area of 97.5%.
Marshall also emphasized that the data collected on crops is based on the acres or amount harvested and not by what was planted in 2022.
Land
Number of farms by acre in Oklahoma
Oklahoma had a 10.4% decrease in total number of farms from 78,531 in 2017 to 70,378 in 2022. Total land in farms also had a 3.7% decrease in 2022 from 34.2 million to 32.9 million acres. The top counties in total land in farms include:
1. Osage County: 1.31 million acres
2. Texas County: 1.26 million acres
3. Cimarron County: 1.15 million acres
4. Beaver County: 1.15 million acres
5. Woods County: 820,627 acres
Although farm numbers and total acres have decreased, the average farm size experienced a slight increase of 7.4% in 2022 from 435 acres to 467 acres. The highest number of farms by acre has seen a consistent increase since 2002. Farms with 50-179 acres remaind the largest contributor to number of Oklahoma farms at 23.34%. This equals a total of 2.5 million acres.
Oklahoma farms account for 3.7% of the total number of farms in the United States. The top Oklahoma counties in farm numbers rank as:
1. Lincoln County: 2,153 farms
2. Creek County: 1,655 farms
3. Rogers County: 1,653 farms
4. LeFlore County: 1,589 farms
5. Grady County: 1,567 farms
The top use of Oklahoma land in farms is ranked as:
1. Pastureland: 18.7 million acres
2. Cropland: 10.89 million acres
3. Woodland: 2.53 million acres
4. Other: 731,086 acres
Economics
Value of agricultural products by county
Oklahoma produced $8.5 billion in total agricultural product sales, contributing to 2% of total U.S. agricultural sales. Comparing agricultural sectors in the state, livestock accounts for 81% of agricultural products, by value, with crops accounting for 19%.
Livestock, poultry, and products had and increase of 16.8% in total sales from $5.94 billion in 2017 to $6.95 billion in 2022, ranking 12th in the U.S. Oklahoma ranks sixth in the U.S. for cattle and calf sales at $3.93 billion – a 5.6% increase from the 2017 sale number of $3.73 billion. Ranking ninth in hogs and pigs at $1.09 billion, Oklahoma had a 6.5% increase from 2017, which recorded $1.03 billion in sales. Oklahoma ranks 19th in poultry and eggs with $1.59 billion in sales.
Crops, including nursery and greenhouse crops, experiended a 4.7% increase from $1.51 billion in 2017 to $1.58 billion in total sales in 2022, ranking 24th in the U.S. Oklahoma ranks 12th in the U.S. in cotton and cottonseed sales at $141 million, which is a 51.9% decrease from the 2017 market value of $299.5 million. Ranking 27th in grains, oilseeds, dry beans, and dry peas at $914 million, Oklahoma had an increase of 15.7% from $789 million in 2017. Oklahoma ranks 27th in other crops and hay at $210 million with a 3.7% increase from the 2017 market value of $202 million.
The top total value of agricultural production by county includes Texas County with $1.16 billion, Delaware County with $509 million, Cimarron County with $354 million, LeFlore County with $309 million, and Adair County with $278 million.
Livestock Inventory
The number of farms with cattle and calves decreased 17% from 52,048 farms in 2017 to 43,223 farms in 2022. Inventory of cattle and calves also decreased by 11.4% from 5.09 million head in 2017 to 4.51 million head in 2022. Farms with 20-99 head per farm remained the highest contributor to the total number of cattle and calf farms at 11,878.
The number of hog farms encountered a slight decrease of 2% from 2,264 farms in 2017 to 2,219 farms in 2022. Inventory of hogs and pigs had a minimal decrease of 0.35% from 2.16 million head in 2017 to 2.15 million head in 2022. There are 1,984 farms with 1-24 head of pigs and hogs, which remains as the highest contributor to the total numer of pig and hog farm count.Inventory of broilers and other meat-type chickens had an increase of 14.6% from 36.1 million head in 2017 to 41.3 million head in 2022. Total number of farms also had an increase of 9.3% from 1,231 farms in 2017 to 1,346 farms in 2022.
Crop Inventory
Oklahoma’s top crops in acres include 2.77 million acres of forage, 2.57 million acres of wheat for grain, 400,675 acres of soybeans, 275,503 acres of cotton and 242,644 acres of grain sorghum.
Land used for all hay and haylage, grass silage, and greenchop farms experienced a slight decrease of 2.5% from 2.8 million acres in 2017 to 2.78 million acres in 2022. However, total tons (dry equivalent) experienced a large decrease of 24.8% from 4.9 million tons in 2017 to 3.7 million tons in 2022.
Total wheat acres faced a decrease of 15.6% from 3 million acres in 2017 to 2.6 million acres in 2022. Consequently, there was a 34.1% decrease in total bushels produced from 100.7 million bushels in 2017 to 66.4 million bushels in 2022.
Total soybeans acres decreased 37.3% from 638,816 acres in 2017 to 400,675 acres in 2022. Total bushels produced experienced a significant decrease of 69.5% from 19.1 million bushels in 2017 to 5.8 million bushels in 2022.
Total cotton acres decreased 50.1% from 552,521 acres in 2017 to 275,503 acres in 2022. Total bales of cotton produced decreased 64.1% from 951,980 bushels in 2017 to 341,726 bushels in 2022.
Total grain sorghumacres decreased 21.8% from 310,316 acres in 2017 to 242,644 acres in 2022. As a result, there was a 67.1% decrease in total bushels produced from 16.6 million bushels in 2017 to 5.5 million bushels in 2022.
Total corn acres experienced a 25.1% decrease from 301,070 acres in 2017 to 225,365 acres in 2022, resulting in a 46% decrease in total bushels produced from 42.7 million bushels in 2017 to 23.1 million bushels in 2022.
Total peanut acres encountered a decrease of 17.9% from 19,871 acres in 2017 to 16,318 in 2022. Subsequently, the total number of bushels produced decreased by 20.7% from 77.2 million bushels in 2017 to 61.2 million bushels in 2022.
Producer Demographics
The average age of agricultural producers in 2022 was 57.7 years old. Only 11,722 were younger than the age of 35-years-old; 66,405 were 35 – 64-years-old and 46,618 were 65 years old or older, a 6.7% increase from 2017.
Young producers under the age of 35 account for 9.4% of total Oklahoma producers at 11,722 out of 124,743 total producers. They operate 8,663 of the 70,378 total Oklahoma farms, with an average farm size of 454 acres.
Other Data
The number of agri-tourism farms experienced a decrease of 3.3% from 761 farms in 2017 to 736 farms in 2022. Despite the decrease, agri-tourism income increased by 41.4% from $6.5 million in 2017 to $11.1 million in 2022.
No-till farms in 2022 increased by 18.9% at 5,682 farms and 2.2 million acres from 7,778 farms and 2.1 million acres in 2017. Reduced-till farms had a 14.5% increase with 3,935 farms and 1.7 million acres in 2022 from 3,437 farms and 1.5 million acres in 2017. Cover-crop farms slightly increased 8.9% with 2,439 farms and 410,540 acres in 2022 from 2,238 farms and 342,564 acres in 2017.
