Data from 2022 Ag Census now available - barley crop valued at over $1 billion annually
Data from the 2022 Ag Census is now available to access at the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service website (USDA-NASS). Only conducted once every five years, this dataset provides the most timely and comprehensive data on U.S. farms and ranches and the people that operate them. All farm sizes are included in this survey that raised and sold at least $1,000 in farm products during the survey year of 2022. Examples of data collected include land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income, and expenditures. A noteworthy takeaway from the report is that although barley production remained relatively steady from the last Census in 2017, crop value raised significantly from $685 million five years ago to just over $1 billion in 2022.
The Ag Census release is relevant to the barley industry as it provides the most accurate accounting of barley production with a much more comprehensive survey process deployed to gather the most complete dataset. It also provides a standard data point at which others years can be compared to. For example, the most recent survey found 9,112 farms reported growing barley across 2.43 million acres, producing over 163 million bushels. In contrast, just ten years prior (2002), 214.8 million bushels of barley were produced across over 4 million acres of land on over 24,000 farms. The Census data also digs deeper into production practices. One helpful metric illustrates the acreage under varying levels of irrigation. Non-irrigated acreage still dominates production in 2022 (75%), but irrigated acreage reports on average twice the yield (111.6 vs. 55.3 bu/acre).
Explore this data and more from the 2022 Ag Census at the USDA-NASS website, which was released on February 13, 2024.
