Iowa's farms continue to consolidate, shedding 2,533 farms over five years, the new U.S. Census of Agriculture shows.

The number of farms in Iowa shrank 2.9% to 86,104, according to the Ag Census, which is conducted every five years. Two decades ago, Iowa had 96,705 farms.

The new census shows Iowa is shedding mostly mid-sized farms while very big and very small farms grow.

Nationally, the number of farms shrank about 3.2% to 2 million. A farm must have at least $1,000 in sales to be counted in the census.

Overall, Iowa land devoted to farming shrank nearly 59,000 acres to nearly 30.6 million acres.

Here are five facts about Iowa farming from the 2017 Census of Agriculture:

IOWA CONSERVATION: Farmers planted 973,112 acres with cover crops in 2017, a 156% increase over 2012.

Farmers used reduced tillage on 10.1 million acres, a 16% hike. Land drained by tiles increased 12% to 14.1 million acres.

Intensive tillage continues to be used on 5 million acres, a 36% reduction.

MEGA & MINI: The number of farms with more than 2,000 acres grew nearly 15% to 1,892, while small farms with less than nine acres climbed 36% to 9,120.

Mid-sized farms mostly shrank in number. For example, farms between 500 and 999 acres shrank 10% to 10,381.

The average sized-farms was 355 acres, 10 acres more than 2012.

FEMALE FARMERS: Iowa has 49,065 women active in farm operations, 34% of the total. Five years ago, women were 25% of the total. Part of the increase could be due to a change in the census question.

American Indian, Asian, black and other minority farmers were 0.5% of 115,630 principal producers. About 600 minority producers operated Iowa farms.

The primary operator's age climbed to 58.9 from 57.1.

Iowa had 22,700 new or beginning farmers who were primary operators.

LITTLE CROP DIVERSITY: Corn and soybeans remain dominant, with about 84,500 farms raising the crops across 23 million acres. Sales were a combined $13.5 billion in 2017.

But Iowa also had 676 organic farms, 164 more than in 2012, with sales growing 65% to $95.2 million.

And its vegetable operations grew to 1,094, adding 132 over five years.

PIG SALES SPIKE: Iowa producers sold 60.3 million pigs and hogs in 2017, 22% more than in 2012. The 2017 sales were $7.8 billion.

Producers sold nearly 3.6 million cattle in 2017 valued at $4.8 billion; it's 4.3% more cattle than in 2012.

Laying hens grew 8.3% to nearly 56.6 million over five years. Poultry and egg sales were $1.6 billion in 2017.

About 1,250 dairy farms sold $868 million in milk. Thirty-seven aquatic farms sold $23.8 million in seafood.