If you ate today, thank a farmer! Today is National Farmer Day. Here are some national statistics that might open our eyes.
- The number of farms in the United States for 2023 is estimated at 1,894,950, down 5,700 farms from 2022.
- The number of farms decreased in all sales classes except the $1,000,000 or more sales class.
- In 2023, 3 percent of all farms had less than $10,000 in sales and 79.0 percent of all farms had less than $100,000 in sales.
- In 2023, 9.7 percent of all farms had sales of $500,000 or more.
- Total land in farms, at 878,560,000 acres, decreased 1,100,000 acres from 2022.
- In 2023, 26.2 percent of all farmland was operated by farms with less than $100,000 in sales, while 49.8 percent of all farmland was operated by farms with sales of $500,000 or more.
- The average farm size for 2023 is 464 acres, up from 463 acres the previous year.1
- The cost of planting beans, wheat, or corn averages about $20/acre.
- Plowing and tilling averages between $15-$18/acre.2
- Approximately 2.3 million are employed in farm related occupations. This is one of the most at-risk jobs a person can do.3
If this doesn’t get you, let’s consider the prices of equipment.
- 2018 CASE IH MAGNUM 280 CVT (Tractor) – $194,000
- 2020 CASE IH 8250 (Combine) – $244,500
- 2018 CASE IH 1245 (Planter) – $114,900
- INTERNATIONAL 6000 (Chisel Plow) – $5,750
- 2006 CASE IH TIGERMATE II (Cultivator) – $26,900
- 2004 SUNFLOWER 1434-29 (Disk) – $27,000
- 2012 J&M 818-18 (Grain Hopper Wagon) – $27,500
This doesn’t include the acreage you’ll need to buy to start your farm or the diesel fuel, seed, fertilizer, herbicides – oh, and don’t forget your crop insurance as well as insurance on all your equipment. You’ll have to maintain and service that equipment which isn’t cheap. Wait a minute – did you forget the storage building you’ll need for all the equipment? Where are you going to put the harvested crops? Do you have silos, dryers, barns, and more?
Let me dig deep in my pockets and see what I did with that spare million dollars I had on me!
If you skipped over this information, please, take a moment and read it. Soak in what it takes for the farmer to do this job and think about the process of how the grains go from the fields to the elevators to the mills and manufacturing plants to the store to your table. Maybe we can see why the prices in the stores have gone up.
Perhaps we’ve romanticized the American farmer and made it sound like the dream job that few people want to do. There’s a reason for that. It’s extremely hard work!! But it’s good work that got complicated by the fall of man.
Genesis 3:17-19 says, “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (18) Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; (19) In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Farming isn’t an easy job. And the Lord used farming to illustrate the Christian’s job of evangelism. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:5-7, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? (6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”
Have you ever thought about sharing the Gospel as Christian farming? We are sowing seed, planting that seed wherever we go. We might be watering seed that others have 
planted.
By now, most of the corn has been harvested. Beans and wheat were harvested a while ago. It’s beautiful to see those fields and to see the promise they hold for a new crop. Let that encourage us to go out today and do some farming of our own!
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap… (9) And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:7, 9)
1https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/5712m6524/b2775h03z/ns065w04d/fnlo0224.pdf.pdf
2https://www.farmprogress.com/crops/purdue-releases-2023-custom-rates-for-planting-tillage-
3https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/agriculture/about/index.html
4https://www.tractorhouse.com/
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