WASHINGTON, D.C. - There was little change last year in the number of farms nationwide.

According to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the number of farms remained the same from the previous year in 26 states, including Ohio. Four states witnessed slight gains in the amount of farms.

There was a slight decrease in farms in the remaining states, including Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Kentucky.

Michael Langemeier, an agricultural economist at Purdue University, said the figures were not surprising because declining farm numbers typically happen gradually and profit margins were substantially better in 2020 from the previous year.

“That would tend to create a smaller number of farms exiting the business when you see a situation like that,” he said.

The NASS figures released Feb. 22 show the number of farms declined by 500 in Indiana and Michigan. There were 300 fewer farms in Illinois and Kentucky while Ohio equaled its total from 2019.

According to NASS, there were 55,500 farms in Indiana last year; 46,500 in Michigan; 71,100 in Illinois 74,500 in Kentucky and 77,800 in Ohio.

 The number of farms nationwide in 2020 stood at slightly more than 2 million after shedding 4,400 farms over the previous 12 months.

Langemeier described the losses as “very small” considering the number of farms going out of business from year to year can be higher particularly during tough economic times. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it good news or bad news. The good news is really related to 2020 being a much more profitable year for farms of all sizes,” he said.

The largest increase in farms was in Florida, where the total rose by 300 to 47,500, according to NASS.

NASS said there was no change in the average size of a farm in the United States at 444 acres. On average, a farm in Illinois contained 378 acres and in Indiana, 266 acres. The average size of farms in Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio ranged from 172 to 209 acres.

The amount of land in production across the country dropped by 4 million acres, NASS said. The amount of acres farmed in 2020 was 896 million.

Total farm ground in Illinois was unchanged at 27 million acres while Indiana finished with 14.8 million acres after losing 100,000 acres from 2019.

Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan also remained at 13.6, 12.9 and 9.8 million acres in production respectively.

Langemeier said a rapid decline in the number of U.S. farms began in the 1950s but started to become more gradual around 1990.

He said the losses now primarily involve mid-sized operations with $100,000 to $500,000 in annual gross revenues.

Langemeier said those operations are sometimes not large enough to produce the revenue necessary to feed a family yet require too much of an investment in time for operators to gain employment away from the farm to supplement their income.

He said those producers need to expand acreage to boost incoming revenue or become a part-time operator to free up time for working outside the farm.

“It’s that medium group that’s been squeezed. That’s the dilemma,” he said. More recently, Langemeier said the number of large farms has held steady while gains have been made in the number of small farms by growers doing it as more of hobby.

Typically, he said 80 percent of the corn and soybeans in the United States are produced annually by about 10 percent of the farms.