The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has posted an updated 2002-2022 summary of Census of Agriculture data for New York’s State 6 northernmost counties. This quick snapshot shows the scope and importance of the NNY regional agriculture sectors that are so critical to the local, regional, and state economies, and includes:
- more than 1.029 million acres of land in agricultural production
- 3588 farms with more than 63.5% small farms of 179 acres or less
- a farm products market value that exceeds $1.174 billion
- a farm employee payroll that adds more than $139.5 million to the NYS economy, an increase of 65.1 million over 2017 data
- 624 young farmers younger than 35 years old
- 643 producers with military service
- fewer dairy farms, but steady dairy cow numbers across the total # of farms 2007-2022
- $21.4 million in organic product sales from 142 organic production farms
- 392 maple farms producing 36% of New York State’s maple syrup from 40% of all of the taps in the state; NNY’s # of taps has grown exponentially since 2000
- 97 honey farms, an increase of 16 since 2017
- and more insights in the updated Census of Agriculture for NNY.
Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.