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Census has reports about that stuff:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/agriculture/farm...

827 is instructive:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0827.p...

More than 1/3 of harvested acres come from farms larger than 2000 acres (of which there are ~80).

Farms larger than 500 acres account for roughly another 1/3 of harvested acres.

Of the remainder, about half of acreage is harvested on farms larger than 260 acres.

There are some huge land holders in that top category (the mean harvested acres is 1.5 million, the mean land ownership is ~4x that).




In some places in the US & Canada, 2000 acres is a pretty small farm. I know a guy in Saskatchewan who farms 1600 acres and holds a full time off-farm job as well.

I also know of a family ranch in Saskatchewan that's about 30,000 acres. It's run by a husband, wife and two hired hands.


The report I linked distinguishes between acres and harvested acres, except for the 4x, I'm quoting the harvested acres. So I think graze land and such is not going to show up in those numbers.

I made a stupid mistake, there are 80,000 large farms, not 80. Damn it. At least that makes a lot more sense.


Excellent, thanks.




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