Try to form a mental picture of all the farms that currently exist in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Now, add in the farms in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. Oh, and don’t forget the farms in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Got it?

Those 10 states combine to about 545,000 farms today. That also happens to be approximately the number of farms that our country has lost in the last four decades.

Equally as concerning, said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack during World Dairy Expo last week, is that 151 million acres of land have gone out of farming in that same time frame. That drives up land prices and makes it more difficult for small and mid-sized operations, especially, to remain viable.

Vilsack was the first sitting USDA secretary to attend the meeting place of the global dairy industry since Sonny Perdue did so in 2019. That appearance gained a lot of press for Perdue’s comments that, in our country, large farms often get bigger and smaller farms often go out of business. Those remarks were largely exaggerated or taken out of context, but the perception remained. Vilsack, who said he has talked about that sentiment with Perdue, described that his department has since seen that notion as a challenge to keep more farms in operation.

He noted that 2021 to 2024 will combine to be the highest four-year period of farm income in the last 50 years, and most likely ever. “The challenge is not everybody feels that,” the Secretary added. He explained that in that period, the largest 7% to 10% of farming operations, which totals between 150,000 and 180,000 operations, received between 85% and 89% of that gross farm income.

“That meant that 1.7 million farms had to share what was left, which explains why some people did pretty well and others continued to struggle,” Vilsack said. “It’s why 88% of the farm families in the country today require off-farm income to be able to keep the farm.”

There is still a place for larger, more commercial operations in the U.S., he said. But there is also an opportunity to support farms that sell less than $500,000 of products a year (USDA’s definition of a “mid-sized” farm) so that there is choice in operations and the ability to strengthen rural communities.

“It can’t just be support programs,” he stated. Instead, the vision is for farms to generate more than one source of revenue for its farmers. “Why is it the farm family has to work two or three jobs? Why can’t the farm itself work smarter and better?” Vilsack posited.

To that end, the Secretary discussed how USDA is supporting programs that encourage a more localized approach to food distribution, which may allow a farmer to earn 50 to 70 cents of the food dollar compared to 20 cents when products are sold further from home. “The reason we’re doing that is that it’s a better deal for the farmer,” he said.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have also been invested in supporting dairy innovation centers that help farmers find new opportunities, in waste management technologies that can bring new revenue streams, and in supporting farmers implementing sustainability practices.

“All of that is designed to really provide an alternative model to the notion that the only recourse is to get big or get out,” Vilsack said. “We are betting on and we believe in this industry and the importance of this industry. We believe that if we can continue to do this, that over time, we can begin the process of reversing the decline of dairy farms and small and mid-size operations in this country.”