Canyon County has the most farms in Idaho, by far

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

Canyon County is small in size but big in farming.

The county has the distinction of having the most farms of any of the state's 44 counties, despite being the sixth smallest county in Idaho in terms of total land size.

According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, which is USDA's attempt to count every farm and ranch in the United States, there were 2,311 farms in Canyon County during the 2022 census year.

That's far more than any other county in Idaho.

However, the average size of a farm in Canyon County - 120 acres - is significantly smaller than the statewide average of 505 acres.

"Because of the smaller layout of the county … by default the farms here are smaller," says Canyon County farmer Matt Dorsey, who farms west of Caldwell.

Melba farmer Miguel Villafana said one of the reasons that farms are smaller in the county is that land parcel sizes in Canyon County are much smaller than in many other Idaho counties, such as Bingham or Bannock.

"It starts with the smaller parcel sizes," he says. "Out here in Canyon County from the beginning … the parcels are just smaller."

While the average size of a farm in the county may be relatively small, there is a lot of agriculture production going on in Canyon County.

According to the ag census, farmers and ranchers in Canyon County brought in a total of $829 million in farm-gate receipts in 2022. That is the money agricultural producers receive directly for their crop or livestock commodity.

That ranked Canyon County No. 5 in Idaho in terms of the counties with the most farm-gate receipts.

The county's farmers and ranchers produce a wide variety of ag commodities, including seed crops, grains, hay, fruit, mint, hops and onions.

According to the 2022 ag census, there was 47,739 acres of hay harvested in Canyon County in 2022, as well as 38,781 acres of wheat, a combined 47,000 acres of corn for grain and silage, and 22,531 acres of vegetables.

The county is also home to a sizable greenhouse and nursery industry and is one of the main seed-producing areas in the world.

A wide variety of high-value seed crops are produced in the county and they don't need to be grown on large acreages.

The county also is big in beef cattle and dairy. In fact, $375 million of the county's total $829 million in farm-gate revenue in 2022 came from livestock production.

According to the ag census, there were more than 139,000 cattle and calves in Canyon County in 2022.

Canyon County is home to some high-quality, productive farmland and the yield potential on that land is really good, Villafana says.

When it comes to agriculture, "This area is so diverse," Villafana says. "It's pretty impressive what we can do in such a small area."

The ag census shows there were 1,056 farms or ranches from 1-9 acres in size in Canyon County in 2022, and 789 were 10-49 acres in size.

But there are still plenty of bigger farms in the county. The census shows there were 122 farms from 180-499 acres in size, 73 from 500-999 acres, and 64 larger than 1,000 acres.

When it comes to counties in Idaho with the most farms, Twin Falls came in at No. 2, with 1,169 farms. The average size of farm in that county is 393 acres.

Given the rapid growth and development occurring in Ada County, that county surprisingly ranked No. 3 with 1,142 farms. But the average size of a farm in Ada County was only 99 acres.

A lot of the farms in the county that qualify as farms under USDA's definition are tiny, says Ada County farmer Neil Durrant.

USDA counts as a farm any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold during the ag census year.

"A lot of farms here are tiny backyard parcels of land," Durrant says.

According to the ag census, there were 568 farms from 1-9 acres in size in Ada County in 2022 and 441 from 10-49 acres in size.

There were only 10 from 500-999 acres in size and 23 were more than 1,000 acres.

Durrant says there are still a decent amount of seed crops, including onion, carrot and sweet corn seed, grown in Ada County, "but it's very minimal when you compare it to Canyon County."

Surprisingly, many of Idaho's main crops are still grown in Ada County, including sugar beets, wheat, alfalfa, corn and mint.

"We still have most of the main commodities grown in Idaho," Durrant says.

Bingham County ranks as the No. 4 county in Idaho in terms of total farms, with 1,082. The average size of a farm in Bingham - 831 acres - is much larger than the statewide average of 505 acres.

Bannock County ranked No. 5 with 1,005 farms during the ag census year. The average size of a farm in the county was 418 acres but the average farm there brought in $45,000 in total farm-gate receipts in 2022, much less than the statewide average of $476,000.

Latah (989 farms with an average size of 329 acres) and Kootenai (968, 111) counties came in at at Nos. 6 and 7.

The Idaho county with the fewest farms was Shoshone, which had 44 farms with an average size of 36 acres in 2022.

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