02/06/07 Washington farm numbers down

Washington Ag February 6, 2007 A new report from the USDA's Agricultural Statistics Service shows the number of farms in the U.S. and Washington state continues to decline and the remaining operations are getting larger. The report says that in 2006 Washington had 34-thousand farms, a loss of 500 from 2005. The largest decline in numbers, 300, came in the lowest annual sales category, those farms with sales between one-thousand and ten-thousand dollars. But all economic categories with sales under 250-thousand dollars saw losses in farm numbers with only those over 250-thousand seeing an increase. The average farm size increased from 438 acres to 444 acres from 2005 to 2006. Meanwhile, the Washington Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service has been contacting local farmers and ranchers asking financial questions for the Agricultural Resource Management Survey or ARMS. Washington Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland is encouraging producers to cooperate in the survey. Loveland: "The ARMS survey is the only national survey that collects accurate, real-world data directly from you, the farmer, on the current financial state of U.S. agriculture." Responses to the survey are confidential and the data is published on a state and national basis. I'm Bob Hoff.