Number of farms remains steady

WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) - Federal officials say the number of farms in New York remained unchanged last year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the state had about 36,000 farms last year with about 7 million acres in use.

Farms with sales of more than $500,000 grew by 100 to 1,900, those with sales between $250,000 and $499,999 remained at 1,300 and smaller farms with sales between $100,000 and $249,999 rose by 300 to 3,500.

There were 11,300 farms with sales under $100,000, up from 10,800 in 2011.

The agency says there were about 2.2 million farms in the U.S., down 11,630 last year.