Farmers, one of the Republican Party’s most loyal voting blocs, have been struggling for survival as consistently high input costs thin their margins. Small producers are especially embattled, with evidence showing that they continue to exit the market as profitability in the farm economy becomes harder to achieve, according to USDA data analyzed by POLITICO.
The number of farms in the United States fell by almost 150,000 in the last five years, and total farmland area reduced by more than 21 million acres nationally. By percent, farm numbers dropped three times as fast as farmland area did.
In other words, there was significantly less farmland loss compared with the number of farms that closed — developments that may suggest that smaller farms are consolidating or being absorbed into bigger ones.
This trend was noticeable in 42 states, including Texas, Montana and Kansas, which had among the most farmland acres in 2025. Montana, for instance, had 14 percent fewer farms last year compared with 2021, but the state only lost around 1 percent of its farmland.
