87% of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals.

Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were predominantly male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female; and third operators were younger still.

Young, beginning principal operators who reported their primary occupation as farming increased 11.3% from 36,396 to 40,499 between 2007 and 2012.

All categories of minority-operated farms increased between 2007 and 2012; the Hispanic-operated farms had a significant 21% increase.

144,530 farm operators reported selling products directly to consumers. In 2012, these sales totaled more than $1.3 billion (up 8.1 percent from 2007).

Organic sales were growing, but accounted for just 0.8% of the total value of U.S. agricultural production. Organic farmers reported $3.12 billion in sales in 2012, up from $1.7 billion in 2007.

Farms with Internet access rose from 56.5% in 2007 to 69.6% in 2012.

57,299 farms produced on-farm renewable energy, more than double the 23,451 in 2007.

474,028 farms covering 173.1 million acres were farmed with conservation tillage or no-till practices.

Corn and soybean acres topped 50% of all harvested acres for the first time.

The largest category of operations was beef cattle with 619,172 or 29% of all farms and ranches in 2012 specializing in cattle.