Computer use continues to increase on America's farms.
The latest numbers from the National Ag Statistics Service shows 84 percent of farms with sales and government payments of $250,000 or more have access to a computer, 82 percent own the computer, 82 percent have internet access and 72 percent use it for the farm business.
Farms with sales and payments of $100,000 to $249,000, 73 percent have access to computer, 71 percent own it, 69 percent have internet access and 56 percent use it for the business. Farms with sales and payments of $10,000 to $99,999, 68 percent have computer access, 66 percent own the computer, 65 percent have internet access and 45 percent use the computer for the farm business.
Among crop farms, 71 percent have computer access, 68 percent have internet access but only 45 percent use the computer for the farm business. 70 percent of livestock farms have computer access, 66 percent have internet access.
DSL is the most popular route to internet access with 35 percent of the farms in the U.S. using it down from 38 percent in 2011. Wireless is used by 24 percent of farms up from 20 percent two years ago. Cable is used by 13 percent, satellite by 17 percent while dial-up has dropped from 12 percent in 2011 to just 5 percent in 2013.
States with the highest farm computer access: Washington and Oregon with 84 percent.
Source: brownfieldagnews.com