March 10, 2005

2002 Census of Agriculture Reveals an Increase in

Women Principal Operators

            The 2002 Census of Agriculture indicated a 63 percent increase in the number of farms operated by women in Wyoming since 1997. A total of 1,532 farms and ranches were reported as having a woman as the principal operator in 2002, 16 percent of all agricultural operations. Women operated 2.57 million acres of land in Wyoming in 2002, an increase of 4 percent from 1997. In addition, 73 percent of the women principal operators were fully owners of the farms they operated. Nearly all women principal operators, 93 percent, own at least part of the land they operated. Nationally, women operated 237,819 farms and ranches in 2002, up 13 percent from 1997.

            “The 2002 Census of Agriculture shows the growing interest and participation of women in the U.S. agricultural production,” commented Dick Coulter, Director of the Wyoming Statistical Office, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). “Census of Agriculture results show the contribution of women farmers and ranchers to the agricultural industry and interesting facts about the types of commodities they produce.”

            The top five states for farms operated by a woman principal operator were Texas with 27,192 farms; California with 12,615; Missouri with 10,818; Tennessee with 9,413; and Oklahoma with 8,720. The top five states in acreage operated by women were Texas with 11,178,527 acres; Arizona with 5,703,441; Montana with 3,804,871; New Mexico with 3,494,882; and Wyoming with 2,569,140. The top five states for women as a percent of all principal operators were New Hampshire with 24.9 percent; Maine with 21.7 percent; Massachusetts with 21.5 percent; Arizona with 20.8 percent; and Connecticut with 20.7 percent.

            Looking at market value of agricultural products sold by women-operated farms, women produced $50.3 million worth of sales of livestock, crops and their products in 2002, 6 percent of the total sales in Wyoming. Nationally, women operators produced $7.5 billion in sales of agricultural products in 2002.

            NASS conducts the census of agriculture every five years and it is the only source of consistent, comparable and detailed data for every county in America. For more census information, visit NASS online at www.usda.gov/nass/ and click on “Census of Agriculture” or call 1-800-892-1660.