Sustainable Agriculture Literature Review - Boulder County

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11.1 Income
The number of farms in the state of Colorado has remained relatively constant in recent
years. From 2002 to 2007, Colorado’s agricultural sector experienced a 34 percent
increase in market value (to $6,061,134,000), 33 percent of which came from crop
production and the remaining 67 percent from livestock production. 825 However, between
2008 and 2009 the agricultural sector as a whole saw a six percent decrease in output
(to $6,639,721,000) and a 19 percent decrease in net value added (to $1,632,283,000).
Farm operators have also seen a 37 percent decrease in net income, down from
$1,178,935,000 in 2008 to $744,918,000 in 2009. 826
Boulder County saw a much smaller, four percent, increase in market value between
2002 and 2007. In contrast to the State, a substantial percentage of agricultural market
value, 76 percent, was generated from crop production, while only 24 percent came from
livestock production. Boulder County experienced a 28 percent increase in agricultural
acreage from 2002 to 2007 compared to only a two percent increase for the entire state.
This increase can be partially attributed to an increase in the number and diversity of
farms responding to the 2007 Census in Boulder County. In these same years, the
largest increases in production in Boulder County included haylage (1,107.3 percent),
carrots (500 percent), angora goats (307.1 percent), and grapes (300 percent). The
largest decreases included the number of pigs and hogs sold (69.2 percent), cantaloupe
(66.7 percent), the value of pigs and hogs sold (64.6 percent), and the number of milk
goats (51.6 percent). 827
11.2 Farm Size
The size of a farm, as defined by the
United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Economic Research Service, is
determined by examining a farm’s gross
cash income: the sum of commodity sales
revenue, government payments, and
other on-farm income. Though the number
of farms nation wide has remained stable
at two million between 1991 and 2007,
there has been a noticeable shift in size
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Figure 42: Farm Size 828
Non-commercial: gross cash income
(GCI) of less than $10,000
Small commercial: GCI of $10,000-
$249,000
Large commercial: GCI of $250,000-
$999,000
Very large commercial: GCI $1 million
distribution from small, diversified farms toward large, specialized farms. In Boulder
County, the average farm size has increased by 39 acres from 2002 to 2007. The
County has seen a seven percent increase in the number of small farms, less than 50
acres, which can partially be attributed to an increase in the number of farms responding
to the census. 829 This suggests that the larger farms in Boulder County are continuing to
get bigger, while at the same time smaller farms are increasing in number. This shift
from small- to large-scale production is attributed to three main factors: profitability,
advancements in technology, and increasing age of farm operators. 830
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