Most Farms Are Small Farms

Massachusetts Agricultural Census 2017

Figure 2.6 shows the distribution of Massachusetts farms by farm size in acres. In 2017, farms holding 10 to 49 acres of land account for 35.01 percent of the total number of farms in Massachusetts. The next most common sized farms are the 1 to 9 acre farms, which accounted for almost 33 percent of the total number of farms in the Commonwealth. These two classes of farms account for more than two thirds (67.78 percent) of the total number of farms in the state. The census data show that the great majority of Massachusetts farms are small farms and these observations are backed by a continuous fall in the average amount of land per farm in Massachusetts since the year 1974. The average farm size in 2002 was about 85 acres. In 2007 and 2012, the average farm size dropped to 67 acres, where it remains in 2017 (68 acres).