American agriculture is so enormous and diverse that it's impossible to get your arms very far around it . . . even for farmers. That's why the Census of Agriculture is done just every five years and why it takes over a year to compile the results.
The latest Census has a cover date of 2012 but was issued just two weeks ago. Free PDF copies are available on the internet at www.agcensus.usda.gov But be warned: its 695 pages take a while to download.
The Census contains more information than you can imagine about U.S. farms and agriculture, dairying included. Its demographic and financial statistics should be taken with a grain of salt, though, because it defines a farm as any place that produces and sells just $1,000 or more of agricultural products.
Its definition of a milk cow herd is also amusing. The number of licensed dairy farms in the U.S. in 2012 was 49,281, but the Census says the number of milk cow herds was 64,098. Most of the difference is probably in the 1 to 9 head category, which the Census says totaled 16,463.
Census efforts have been updated in recent years, however, to include herd size categories larger than 500-plus head. The top category in 2012 is 2,500-plus, which numbered 576 herds.
If downloading the 2012 Census doesn't break your patience and you'd like an eye-opening look at U.S. farming from long, long ago, you can also download the 1840 Census of Ag.
