OCR Text |
Show Utah Farms Had 329 Million In 1974 Sales, Census Reports U(ah farmers sold $329 million wo"11 of agricultural nraducts in 1974. as compared jrth $213 million in 19, Lording to a preliminary .port of the 1974 Census of ! Ariculture released this week tv the Bureau of the Census, US. Department of Commerce. Com-merce. Farms in Utah numbered 13,130 in 1974 and occupied ibout 20 percent of the State's iial land area. Places of less : ltljn 10 acres were counted as farms if sales of agricultural products amounted to or normally would amount to at ljSt $250. Places of 10 acres or more were counted as farms if sales of agricultural products or the year amounted to or normally would amount to at least $50. This definition was first used in the 1959 Census of Agriculture. Livestock, poultry and their products accounted for $235 million of 1974 sales, rising more than $60 million from 1969, while the value of sales from crops, including, nursery products and hay increased from $39 million in 1969 to $95 million in 1974. ' The average size of Utah farms decreased from 867 acres in 1969 to 789 acres in 1974 while the number of farms with 500 acres or more held steady-2,372 in 1974 versus 2,374 in 1969. The average value per acre more than doubled between 1969 and 1974, climbing from $92 to J197. The inventory of cattle and calves was up 13 percent (from 736,000 in 1969 to 831,000 in 1974), while the number of farms with cattle rose from 8.293 to 8.326. Sheep numbers 77 t?m 1 million to 757,000-a25 percent decline-as decline-as the number of farms reporting sheep fell from 2,752 to 2.585. The inventory of hens and pullets of laying age jumped 40 percent between 1969 and 1974, increasing from 1.3 million to 1.8 million. The number of farms with hens and pullets rose from 1,159 to 1,262. Milk cow inventories also increased during the five-year period from 70,000 to 76.000. Fewer farms produced wheat in 1974 than in 1969-3,671 versus 4,088. But the acreage of wheat harvested harves-ted increased from 220,000 to 265,000 and output rose from 5.8 million to 6.4 million bushels. Barley output on farms with sales of $2,500 and over, however, fell as did the acreage of barley harvested, down from 117,000 acres in 1969 to 112,000 acres in 1974. Between 1969 and 1974, the number of full owner-operated farms rose from 8,229 to 8,813 while the number of part-owner part-owner operated farms fell from 4,063 to 3,569. Tenant operated opera-ted farms decreased from 753 to 748. The average age of the farm operators increased from 51.4 to 52.9 years. About half the operators did not consider farming their principal occupation. occupa-tion. Figures for farms with sales of $2,500 or more are shown for both 1974 and 1969 in the report. There were 8,684 of these farms in Utah in 1974 and they represented 66 percent of all farms. Moreover, More-over, these farms accounted for 97 percent of the value of agricultural products sold and averaged $36,708 in sales. This compares with 8,413 of these farms in 1969 with an average of $24,335 in sales. Farms with sales of $2,500 or more averaged 985 acre's in size and accounted for more than 90 percent of most major classes of livestock and poultry and major crops in 1974. Farms with sales of $40,000 and over increased from 1,132 in 1969 to 1,729 "in 1974. There were 566 farms with sales of $100,000 or more. Copies of the preliminary report, "1974 Census of Agriculture: Utah," and for each of its counties are for sale from Subscriber Services Section Sec-tion (Publications), Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. 20233, or any Department of Commerce District Office. The price is 25 cents a copy. 0 'I i I |