Abstract

Zhigang*

An empty farmstead is probably the saddest sight in agriculture, and one that is generally very natural to Upper Midwest agriculturalists. The generations-old trend of  farm consolidation farms expanding and less keeps, as indicated by another government report based on the 2017 Census of Agriculture, which was released in 2019. One indication of that: So-called moderate size farms, ones with 100 to 900 acres, represented 57% of U.S. cropland sections of land in 1987 however just 33% in 2017. Interestingly, farms with in excess of 1,000 acres of land sections of land represented just 15% of cropland in 1987 yet 41% in 2018, as indicated by the report.