Agricultural Statistics in Indian River County — Indian River County, Florida

The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 492 farms on 167,396 acres in Indian River County, the farmland that surrounds Sebastian, Vero Beach and Fellsmere, up 9% in number but down 8% in acreage from 2017 (USDA NASS 2022 county profile).

Farms got more numerous and smaller at the same time. The average farm in the county around Sebastian covered 340 acres in 2022, down 16% from five years earlier (NASS 2022 profile), when the census counted 450 farms on 182,559 acres averaging 406 acres (NASS 2017 profile). The median farm is far smaller than the average: NASS Table 1 puts the 2022 median at 11 acres, down from 13 in 2017 (NASS Table 1, 2022, NASS Table 1, 2017), while 20 farms of 1,000 acres or more pull the average up (2022 profile).

The census reports these numbers for the county only. NASS publishes no separate figure for Sebastian, Vero Beach or Fellsmere, so every statistic on this page describes all of Indian River County, from the groves and pastures near Fellsmere to the small acreages around Roseland and Wabasso. The 2022 census, which compares itself with 2017, is the latest county count available in October 2026.

Land values rose while acreage fell. NASS estimated the market value of Indian River County land and buildings at an average of $6,645 per acre in 2022, against $5,745 in 2017 (Table 1, 2022, Table 1, 2017), an increase of $900 an acre. Irrigated land shrank from 52,851 acres, 29% of farmland, to 40,217 acres, 24% (2017 profile, 2022 profile). In 2022 the county's farms held 41,654 acres of cropland and 28,660 acres of woodland, with pastureland withheld to avoid disclosing individual operations.

Farms from Sebastian to Fellsmere sold $124,098,000 of products in 2022, 73% of it crops, led by fruit at $63,061,000, which ranked the county 9th in Florida for fruits, tree nuts and berries (NASS 2022 profile, page 2).

Across the county around Vero Beach and Sebastian, two smaller lines grew fast. Aquaculture sales reached $21,773,000 in 2022, ranking Indian River County 3rd among Florida counties, and nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod sales came to $21,118,000 (NASS 2022 profile, page 2). In 2017 the same county sold $2,819,000 of aquaculture and $5,046,000 of nursery products, while fruit sales were $87,782,000 (NASS 2017 profile, page 2). The shift shows in the overall split: crops made up 89% of sales in 2017 and 73% in 2022, with livestock, poultry and products rising from 11% to 27%.

Higher sales did not mean higher earnings for farms from Sebastian to Fellsmere. Total farm production expenses rose 50% to $116,511,000, and net cash farm income fell 56% to $15,602,000 in 2022 (NASS 2022 profile), down from $35,255,000 in 2017 (NASS 2017 profile). Average net cash income per farm dropped from $78,345 to $31,711 over the same five years.

USDA's preliminary August 2026 Commercial Citrus Inventory counts 6,135 acres and 999,200 citrus trees in Indian River County, home to Sebastian and Vero Beach, down from 8,627 acres and 1,314,100 trees in 2023 (NASS Commercial Citrus Inventory, page 3).

Every year of the 2023 to 2026 series shows a drop for the county that holds Sebastian and Vero Beach. Indian River County lost 2,492 acres between 2023 and 2026 (8,627 minus 6,135), about 29% of its citrus acreage. St. Lucie County, south of Vero Beach, still holds 12,741 acres, while Brevard, north of Sebastian, is down to 125 (NASS, page 3). Statewide, total citrus acreage is 165,359 acres, down 21 percent from the previous survey (NASS, page 1). These 2026 figures are preliminary.

The Census of Agriculture measures citrus another way and gives larger numbers. Farms in Indian River County reported 17,834 acres of oranges, 5,222 acres of grapefruit and 891 acres of lemons in 2022 (NASS 2022 profile, page 2), against 24,362 acres of oranges and 13,380 of grapefruit in 2017 (NASS 2017 profile, page 2). The citrus inventory comes from aerial photography of commercial groves, with each observed change followed by a ground check (NASS inventory procedures, page 3), while the census figures come from a separate survey, so the two series should be read separately rather than mixed. Within the census, grapefruit fell faster than oranges on Indian River County farms from Wabasso to Vero Beach: 13,380 to 5,222 acres, down 61%, against 24,362 to 17,834 acres of oranges, down 27%.

Indian River County, around Sebastian and Fellsmere, held 23,234 cattle and calves on December 31, 2022, including 14,109 beef cows on 163 farms, up from 20,334 cattle and 13,029 beef cows in 2017 (NASS 2022 profile, NASS Table 1, 2022, Table 1, 2017).

Fewer farms keep more cows. NASS Table 1 counts 180 farms with cattle and 163 with beef cows in 2022, against 217 and 193 in 2017, and it puts cattle and calves sold at 8,166 head in 2022 and 10,932 in 2017 (Table 1, 2022, Table 1, 2017). Cattle sales were worth $6,882,000 in 2022 (NASS 2022 profile, page 2). UF/IFAS Extension Indian River County, whose office lists its contact address at 7961 58th Avenue, Vero Beach, describes the county as having a history rich in agriculture, notably in cattle and citrus (UF/IFAS Extension Indian River County).

Smaller animal counts round out the 2022 inventory for farms around Fellsmere, Vero Beach and Sebastian: 753 horses and ponies, 407 goats, 1,372 laying hens, 247 sheep and lambs and 179 hogs and pigs (NASS 2022 profile, page 2). The horse count was 574 in 2017 (NASS 2017 profile, page 2).

The 2022 census counted 902 producers on farms in the county around Sebastian and Vero Beach, 564 men and 338 women, with 311 aged 65 or older and 321 new and beginning farmers (NASS 2022 profile, page 2).

The producer count grew from 792 in 2017, when 511 were men, 281 were women and 208 were 65 or older (NASS 2017 profile, page 2). In 2022, 77 producers in the county were under 35. NASS collected data for at most four producers per farm, so a large operation near Fellsmere or Roseland counts no more than four people.

Most farms are family operations and many are small sellers. NASS reports that 88% of farms in the county, from Sebastian to Fellsmere, are family farms, 34% hire farm labor, 11% sell directly to consumers and 80% have internet access (NASS 2022 profile, page 2). On the sales side, 187 farms, 38% of the total, sold less than $2,500 of products in 2022, while 93 farms, 19%, sold $100,000 or more (NASS 2022 profile).

Help for growers is local. UF/IFAS Extension Indian River County offers educational programs in agriculture, horticulture and 4-H youth development, takes calls at (772) 226-4330 and lists a multicounty fruit crops program among its agriculture pages (UF/IFAS Extension). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the USDA NASS 2022 and 2017 Census of Agriculture county profiles for Indian River County (pages 1 and 2), NASS Table 1 County Summary Highlights (2022 page 5 and 2017 page 6, Indian River column), page 1 and page 3 of the Preliminary Commercial Citrus Inventory of August 2026, and the UF/IFAS Extension Indian River County home page.