With farm hand Chuck Bender driving the tractor, the hay ride heads out from the corn maze with a load of guests at Craven Farm at the base of Lord Hill southeast of Snohomish on Sunday, Sept. 27 during COVID-19. Bender fabricated the dividers in the hay wagon so that the farm could conform to the social distancing requirements.
Doug Ramsay
Federal numbers show a slight increase in the amount of land being used for farming in Snohomish County.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases an agriculture census every five years. The census, which contains information gathered in 2022, shows 73,324 acres devoted to farming in Snohomish County, which is up from 63,671 acres in 2017.
“I think our farmers are doing better,” said Linda Neunzig, who is the coordinator for Snohomish County’s agriculture office. The USDA last conducted an agriculture census in 2017.
She said farmers have more markets to sell to, are benefiting from agriculture-related tourism (agritourism) and seeing an increased demand for local food.
“People want to know where their food comes from,” Neunzig said.
Snohomish County has also seen a decrease in the number of farms between the two censuses. The recent data shows 1,418 farms in Snohomish County in 2022, which is lower than the 1,558 farms recorded in 2017.
The agriculture census defines a farm as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally been sold during the census year.
Neunzig said the reduction in farms can be attributed to a farm being purchased by a neighboring farm.
The number of farms less than nine acres has declined from 709 farms in 2017 to 530 farms in 2022. The number of farms between 10 acres and 49 acres increased over the same period from 618 in 2017 to 645 in 2022.
The census shows the number of farms between 50 and 179 acres increased from 167 in 2017 to 182 in 2022.
Linda Lyshall, executive director with the Snohomish Conservation District, is taking a cautious approach to the census data.
“We know we’ve lost a lot of farm land,” Lyshall said.
She noted two significant farms in the Marysville area were recently sold and Snohomish County continues to grow.
“We need better and more frequent data,” Lyshall said.
Both Lyshall and Neunzig were happy to see the increase in agriculture productivity.
The USDA census showed the value of agricultural products in 2022 was $280.7 million, which is a 78 percent increase from the $157.6 million reported in 2017.
The data shows that the number of farms, as well as the acreage used in agriculture in Washington state has declined from 2017 to 2022.
The census showed 32,076 farms in 2022, which is down from 35,793 in 2017. In acres of farms, the number reduced from 14,679,851 in 2017 to 13,855,414 in 2022.
Nationally, the number of farms and acreage has declined between 2017 to 2022. The census showed 1.9 million farms comprising more than 880 million acres in 2022, which is down from the 2.04 million farms comprising 900 million acres in 2017.
Neunzig said the numbers show there remains a lot of pressure on farms and expenses remain high.
She added that the agriculture census is important because it provides information for grant applications and to inform the public.
“The support for agriculture is here and why it is important to us,” Neunzig said.
