Farms a growing industry for county

[ Originally published on: Friday, February 13, 2009 ]

It's been a growing business -- farming, that is -- with a 26 percent jump in the number of farms in Franklin County, as well as an increase in land being farmed.

And it's also attracted a growing number of women as well.

The trends -- which are borne out for the state as a whole -- are reported in the recently released U.S. agricultural census, done in 2007. The census, completed every five years, shows that while county land in farming grew 7 percent between 2002 and 2007, the average farm size has decreased 15 percent, from 127 to 107 acres.

There's also been a 33 percent increase in the market value of what's produced -- $56.8 million -- with 64 percent of that from sales of crops, and the rest from livestock. The average sales per farm increased 5 percent, to $76,712.

Franklin County had the highest organic sales of any county in Massachusetts, according to the census -- $2.97 million -- from a total of 48 farms. It also had the highest number of member-based 'community supported agriculture' operations -- 103 of the state's 613 CSAs.

The increase in the number of farms selling directly to customers increased by 39 percent -- from 141 to 196 -- higher than the 32 percent increase statewide, and total direct sales soared by 163 percent -- for a total of $3.4 million -- far exceeding the nationwide average of 17 percent, according to Jennifer Dempsey of American Farmland Trust, whose regional office is in Northampton.

'That's a huge jump in sales,' she said, although she added that the values reported in the census are not adjusted for inflation. 'You have CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) and all of these other efforts in this area to create new markets, and you can see this play out.'

Still, the census shows, 219 of the county's 741 farms were quite small with less than $1,000 in sales, and 183 farms showed between $1,000 and $4,999 in sales. Together, those represent 402 farms -- more than half of the farms in the county.

There's been a near doubling in the number of women who are principal farm operators -- from 99 to 195 -- as well as principal farm operators who describe their primary operation as farming, from 312 in 1997 to 350 a decade later.

'Women in farming is definitely a growing a group,' said Program Coordinator Claire Morenon of CISA. Since 2005, CISA has had a Women in Agriculture network, which attracted 35 women to a tractor maintenance workshop last spring and runs periodic technical sessions in topics like avoiding farming accidents, budgeting and farm labor.

More than one-quarter of Franklin County's principal farm operators are women -- although that 26.3 percent level remains lower than the 28.9 percent level for the state as a whole.

Government payments to farms in Franklin County was down 6 percent between 1997 and 2007, to $719,000, and the average payments per farm fell by 42 percent, from $12,752 to $7,4116.

About one-third of the county's farms range from 10 to 49 acres, with a slightly smaller share between 50 and 179 acres. More than 100 farms are under 100 acres.

Of the 79,465 acres in farmland, 54.2 percent is in woodlots, 30.7 percent is in cropland and 8 percent is pastureland.

Statewide

Statewide, agriculture grew by 27 percent both in crop and livestock sales and in the total number of farms.

The census data also show direct sales from Massachusetts farms totaled $42 million in 2007, compared with $31 million in 2002. Organic sales rose to $17.5 million in 2007 from $7.8 million in 2002.

The USDA also reported that income generated from tourists visiting Massachusetts farms, known as agritourism, leaped from $665,000 in 2002 to $5.3 million in 2007, and noted a rise in the number of women farmers from 21 percent in 2002 to 29 percent in 2007. The number of women farmers in Massachusetts is double the national average of 14 percent in 2007.

You can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269

 

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