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Fewer overall farms in Minnesota, but more high-revenue operations

New USDA data shows while there are fewer farms in Minnesota, the number of high-revenue operations is increasing.

The National Ag Statistics Service says the state was down 300 farms in 2016, for a total of 73,300.

However, the number of farms in the $100,000 to $250,000 dollar sales class increased 100 to 8,600.

Total land in farms has remained steady since 2013 at nearly 26 million acres.

And the average farm size in Minnesota was up slightly from 2015 at 353 acres.

Nationally, there were 8,000 less farms compared to the year before, and the average farm size rose an acre to 442.