A counting of American agriculture

In case you missed it, the National Agricultural Statistics Service released its massive Census of Agriculture report on Wednesday. You are more than welcome to pour through all the data yourself, but if you are interested in the highlights of what's happening in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, the Capital Press staff and our sources did some of the pouring for you.

You can find our main story here, with links to others. Or if you prefer to read that in print, we'll have those stories for you in the Friday, Feb. 6 edition.

Or if you just want the quickest of quick summaries, here it is: There are more farms in the U.S. and most of the four Western states, but they are smaller than they were in 2002. And the average age of farmers continues to climb.