(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University study finds the size and number of small farms in Iowa is dwindling, while the size and number of commercial farms is exploding. Professor David Peters, an extension rural sociologist at I-S-U, defines a small farm as being about 300 acres. Those small farm numbers are down 27-percent and the acreages farmed by those small operators shrunk by nearly 50-percent.

As for large commercial farms, of between two- and four-thousand acres, their numbers doubled while the farmland that they operated expanded by some 75-percent. Peters says whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view. Larger farms tend to be more efficient and produce large amounts of commodities at relatively better prices, but he says Iowa is in danger of losing its agricultural legacy.