Ag Census: Oklahoma Leads Nation in Growth of Local Markets

–Wylie Harris

The 2007 Census of Agriculture, released earlier this year, paints a picture of large and positive changes underway in Oklahoma’s farm and ranch scene.
Wheat and cattle dominate many people’s mental image of Sooner State agriculture. Traditional livestock and cash grains account for over 90% of the total market value of Oklahoma agricultural products sold (see box).

However, the most rapidly growing sales sectors in Oklahoma agriculture include some crops and marketing approaches that have not traditionally been as important:

Direct and Organic
After decades of little change, direct farm sales in Oklahoma exploded between 2002 and 2007. This count includes marketing venues such as farmers’ markets, on-farm sales, and the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.

The number of farms selling direct to the customer via these and other venues rose from 1,920 to 3,194, while sales climbed from 3.7 million to over $11.5 million.

These increases (66% for farm numbers, 209% for sales) far outstripped the nationwide growth rates (17% and 50%, respectively). In fact, Oklahoma saw the fastest growth in these two measures of any state in the U.S.

Between 2002 and 2007, the number of certified organic farms in Oklahoma grew from 6 to 131, and sales increased from $12,000 to over $3.5 million. Again, these rates of growth are well above the national average.

Most visions of sustainable agriculture hold that the ideal agriculture is both as local and as organic as possible. The Ag Census numbers show that Oklahoma is taking solid strides in both directions.

Know Your Farmer
Farmers, as well as farming, are diversifying in Oklahoma. The “average” Oklahoma farmer is still elderly (average age 58 years), whjte (88% of Oklahoma farmers), and male (87%).

However, the 3,265 new farmers who cropped up between 2002 and 2007 also include many who don’t fit that profile.

For the first time in recent memory, the number of farmers has also increased among farmers in the 25-34 age bracket, representing at least 600 new farmers (as opposed to just younger ones “aging into” this group).

Women, the largest minority group in Oklahoma agriculture, increased in number by 24% between 2002 and 2007.

During the same period, Oklahoma’s numbers of Native American farmers grew by 55%, and those of African American farmers by 32%, while the number of Asian American farmers increased almost fourfold.

Previously the fastest-growing minority group of Oklahoma farmers, Latino principal operators’ numbers dropped by 50% between 2002 and 2007 (while growing by 10% nationwide).

Increasingly, farmers are not “farmers first,” at least in terms of income. In 2007, 42% of Oklahoma farm operators listed farming as their principal occupation, down from 55% just five years earlier.

The More Things Change…
Not all aspects of Oklahoma agriculture are changing. The amount of farmland in Oklahoma has been fairly steady for most of the time since statehood.
Most of the farms gained since 1997 are less than 180 acres in size, though the number of the largest farms – those with 2,000 or more acres – also increased slightly (Figure 1).

But the state also added enough farmland (nearly 1.5 million acres) in recent years to keep the average farm size almost the same, rising from 404 to 405 acres.

An overwhelming majority of Oklahoma farmers – 94% – own at least some of the land they farm. On the other hand, 34% of them lease at least some of it. About 38% of the acres farmed in Oklahoma are rented.

In 2007, there were 48,644 hired laborers working on 19% of Oklahoma farms. An individual worker’s average yearly earnings were $5,243. Of the 16,826 Oklahoma farms using hired labor, 83% hired workers for fewer than 150 days per year.

The Bottom Line
In 2007, the average net farm income for Oklahoma was $11,885 – up from $8,220 in 2002, but still well below the figure of $33,827 for the U.S. overall.

Thirty-nine percent of Oklahoma farms made money or broke even, with an average net income of $51,479.

The 61% of farms that lost money had net losses of $13,364, on average.
Sixty-nine percent of Oklahoma farms receive no federal farm subsidy payments.In 2007, the highest per-farm federal subsidy payments in Oklahoma went (in decreasing order) to cotton ($69,000 per farm), grains ($14,000), beef cattle ($6,500), feedlots ($6,475), dairy ($5,760), and hogs ($5,735).

The state’s fastest-growing segments of agriculture, like direct sales and organics, received more support in the 2007 Farm Bill than at any time previously (see Field Notes, Spring 2009). However, that aid is still a drop in the bucket compared to these traditional conventional commodity programs.

Read more about local markets and direct sales in Oklahoma visit the community/local foods pages at www.kerrcenter.com.