| Historical Estimates of Land in Farms and Land Use by Farms in Whatcom County |
|---|
| Value by Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 |
| Farms (number) | 1,463 | 1,367 | 1,228 |
| Total Area in farms (acres) | 124,675 | 118,136 | 103,600 |
| Average size of farm (acres) | 85 | 86 | 84 |
| Median size of farm (acres) | (N) | (N) | 40 |
| Total cropland (farms) | 1,298 | 1,204 | 1,068 |
| Total cropland (acres) | 93,646 | 90,719 | 80,854 |
| Harvested cropland (farms) | 1,065 | 1,001 | 905 |
| Harvested cropland (acres) | 64,984 | 65,643 | 60,715 |
| Irrigated land (farms) | 495 | 466 | 415 |
| Irrigated land (acres) | 28,768 | 29,689 | 25,792 |
| Livestock and poultry: Cattle and calves inventory (farms) | 1,127 | 991 | 800 |
| Livestock and poultry: Cattle and calves inventory (number) | 109,787 | 115,904 | 120,652 |
| Beef cows (farms) | 424 | 392 | 334 |
| Beef cows (number) | 5,850 | 5,838 | 4,748 |
| Milk cows (farms) | 475 | 395 | 307 |
| Milk cows (number) | 55,631 | 62,370 | 64,162 |
| Cattle and calves sold (number) | 56,311 | 55,184 | 66,771 |
| Hogs and pigs inventory (farms) | 61 | 48 | 36 |
| Hogs and pigs inventory (number) | 2,629 | 653 | 350 |
| Sheep and lambs inventory (farms) | 53 | 55 | 40 |
| Sheep and lambs inventory (number) | 545 | 907 | 406 |
| Layers and pullets 13 weeks old and older inventory (farms) | 97 | 86 | 57 |
| Layers and pullets 13 weeks old and older inventory (number) | 239,564 | (D) | (D) |
| Broilers and other meat-type chickens sold (farms) | 8 | 10 | 9 |
| Broilers and other meat-type chickens sold (number) | 7,643,345 | 2,026,121 | 3,127,984 |
| Corn for grain or seed (farms) | 4 | 12 | 3 |
| Corn for grain or seed (acres) | 353 | 1,352 | (D) |
| Corn for silage or green chop (farms) | (N) | (N) | (N) |
| Corn for silage or green chop (acres) | (N) | (N) | (N) |
| Sorghum for grain or seed (farms) | (N) | (N) | (N) |
| Sorghum for grain or seed (acres) | (N) | (N) | (N) |
| Wheat for grain (farms) | 15 | 16 | 8 |
| Wheat for grain (acres) | 733 | 1,182 | 626 |
| Barley for grain (farms) | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| Barley for grain (acres) | 236 | (D) | (D) |
| Potatoes, excluding sweet potatoes (farms) | 12 | 10 | 12 |
| Potatoes, excluding sweet potatoes (acres) | 1,378 | 1,482 | 1,585 |
| Hay-alfalfa,other tame,small grain,wild,grass silage,green chop,etc (farms) | 865 | 765 | 658 |
| Hay-alfalfa,other tame,small grain,wild,grass silage,green chop,etc (acres) | 53,299 | 48,179 | 40,910 |
| Land in orchards (farms) | 32 | 63 | 58 |
| Land in orchards (acres) | 229 | 329 | 419 |
(D) Withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual farms.
(N) Not available.
Modified from: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1999, 1997 Census of Agriculture. Washington-- State and County Data: National Agricultural Statistics Service, digital data, on-line on the World Wide Web from the Universal Resource Locator (URL): http://govinfo.library.orst.edu/cgi-bin/ag-list?01-073.wac