New land ownership data add value to many policy and research questions

Whether they farm the land themselves or rent it out to others to farm, those who own agricultural land are taking measures to keep the land in their families. This is good news for those who worry about the U.S. losing agricultural land to competing pressures.
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service just released the findings from a survey of agricultural landowners conducted earlier this year. It confirmed some things already known and generated lots of new information that farmers, policymakers, businesses and others will use to understand more about who owns farmland, who has and will have access to farmland in the future, what kinds of conservation and production decision landowners are making, and lots more.
This is the first time this much information about agricultural landownership is available since NASS conducted a similar survey in 1999. The new survey, called the 2014 Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) survey, tells us a lot about the 39 percent of farmland – some 354 million acres – that landowners rent out for agricultural purposes.
Read more at USDA…