The 2007 Census of Agriculture on Missouri Vegetables
Sanjun Gu, State Vegetable Specialist

The USDA Census of Agriculture is the leading source of facts and figures about American agriculture. Conducted every five years, the Census provides a detailed picture of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. The 2007 Census of Agriculture includes data at national, state and county levels concerning all areas of farming and ranching operations, including production expenses, market value of products, and operator characteristics. Below is a brief summary of the Missouri Vegetables.

Missouri vegetable industry has increased significantly on vegetable farms, grown acres and sale value (Table 1). The number of vegetable farms has increased by 42%, the acreage by 20% and sale values by 68% respectively, compared to that of the 2002 Census. The value of sold vegetables in 2007 was over $62 millions, ranking the 29th among the 50 states. The average income from vegetables was about $1,879/acre. It is worth noting that of all 32,837 acres of vegetables, 66.5% were for processing market (21,838 acres), and the remaining 33.5% (11,000 acres) were for fresh market.

Table 1. Summary of Missouri Vegetables from 1992 to 2007.

	2007	2002	1997	1992
No. of Farms	1,335	938	858*	953
Acres	32,837	27,404	21,804	21,007
Values ($1000)	61,705	36,723	18,718	13,644
* An optional number would be “948”.

When comparing Missouri vegetable industry to the neighboring states (I included South Dakota as well since it is one of the state involving Great Plains Vegetable Conference), Missouri was in the 3rd place on grown acres, after Illinois and Tennessee (Table 2). The average size of a vegetable farm was about 24 acres. However, in Missouri 1171 out of the total 1335 vegetable farms were less than 15 acres (Table 3). The complete distribution of vegetable farm number and size, acres for processing and fresh market is listed in Table 3. Please note that there were six vegetable farms that were over 1000 acres, but these farms were for processing market only (Table 3).

Table 3. The Missouri Vegetable Farms and Acreage in 2007.

Farm size	Farms			Acres
	Total	Processing	Fresh Market	Total	Processing	Fresh Market
Missouri Total	1335	157	1261	32837	21838	10999
0.1 to 0.9 acres	398	30	384	(D)*	10	(D)
1.0 to 4.9 acres	589	60	568	1139	68	1072
5.0 to 14.9 acres	184	22	179	1412	60	1352
15.0 to 24.9 acres	48	0	48	873	-	873
25.0 to 49.9 acres	46	11	38	1503	336	1168
50.0 to 99.9 acres	17	3	14	1256	244	1012
100.0 to 249.9 acres	34	18	22	5562	2962	2600
250.0 to 499.9 acres	9	4	6	2807	979	1828
500.0 to 749.9 acres	2	2	1	(D)	(D)	(D)
750.0 to 999.9 acres	2	1	1	(D)	(D)	(D)
>1,000.0 acres	6	6	0	15047	15047	0

*D: Withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual farms. Vegetables were grown in all 114 counties in Missouri in 2007. The top 20 counties with over 100 acres of vegetables are listed in Table 4. The total acreage of planted vegetables in these 20 counties was 19,367, which was about 60% of total acres in the state.

Table 5 shows the 10 most grown vegetables in Missouri in 2007. These 10 species account for 97% of the total vegetable acres. Of the 10 vegetables, Snap beans, sweet corn, and field tomatoes significantly increased in acreage, while cucumbers, watermelons and squash decreased in acreage.

One may doubt about the accuracy of the information, however, this is the most accurate data we could get officially, and lots of policies will or have been made based on these data. If you have been a farmer who did not participate in the survey last time, you are strongly encouraged to participate next time! Also, I could not find much information on protected vegetable production, for example, in high tunnels. Hopefully this will be included later on, or we may consider doing one ourselves in the future