Massachusetts Agricultural Census
Every five years, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducts a census of U.S. agriculture. The objective is to obtain a complete picture of agriculture in the nation. These web pages provide an overview of the results of the 2012 Census in Massachusetts. It was prepared by the Department of Resource Economics at UMass Amherst.
About the Agricultural Census
Basic census information about Massachusetts agriculture is presented with comparisons to previous census years within the pages of this section.
Top Five Types of Massachusetts Farms
When identifying the most prominent types of farms in Massachusetts, there are many different ranking systems that can be adopted.
Number of Farms
In general, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, farm numbers in Massachusetts increased as measured by the Census of Agriculture.
Land in Farms
Between 1997 and 2002, as the number of farms declined in Massachusetts, so did the total land in agriculture.
Market Value
After a consistent upward trend during the prior three decades, the value of agricultural products sold declined between 1997 and 2002, but seems to have recovered over the following ten years.
Farm Operators
From 1974 to 1987, the number of full time farmers grew by 22.4 percent compared to nearly 72 percent for part-time farmers. By 1987, there were nearly as many part-time farmers in the state as there were full-time farmers.
Demographics of Farm Operators
Female principal farm operators increased between 2002 and 2007 by 921 and between 2007 and 2012 by 281.
Types of Business Organizations
In 2012, 6,168 farms of the total 7,755 (79.5 percent) were individually or family owned.
Farm Real Estate Values
New England has some of the highest farm real estate values in the country.
Input Price Indices
Prices received by farmers in the U.S. increased almost one and a half times, from an index value of 94 in 1979 to 139 in 2010 (the indexes have a common base year where 1977=100).
Additional Massachusetts Agricultural Data
Economic Impact of the Turfgrass Industry in New England
2017 Northeast Economic Engine: Agriculture, Forest Products and Commercial