America's Diverse Family Farms Study

America's Diverse Family Farms Study

According to the recent USDA's America's Diverse Family Farms Study that was released last month, family farms comprise 99 percent of U.S. farms, accounting for 89 percent of production. Small farms make up 90 percent of farms, operating nearly half of farmland. USDA economist and study co-author Bob Hoppe shares more details about the various segments of those small family farms generating less than $350,000 which comprise that nine of 10 U.S. family farms, but account for only 24 percent of farm production.

Hoppe: "When we look farm household income in the survey, we were looking at income from all sources both farm and off-farm sources. On the smaller end would include retirement farms where the operator is retired but still farms enough to make the farming definition. We have off-farm occupation farms where the operator have a major occupation of something other than farming. Then what we call the low-sales small family farm which would have gross revenues of less than $150,000 but they report that farming as their major occupation. Those groups by and large depend on off-farm income — most commonly would be salary and wages jobs and then the older ones would have income from things like Social Security."

Hoppe says the definition of larger family farms that account for 42 percent of the nation's farm production have farm revenues of $1 million or more.

Only 3 percent of operating farms in the U.S. are non-family corporations and 80 percent of these corporations report no more than 10 star holders.

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