Characteristics of Women Farm Operators and Their Farms

Economic Research Service, USDA Characteristics of Women Farm Operators and Their Farms, EIB-111 7
Thus, most of the growth in women-operated farms was concentrated in the lower
end of the size distribution (table 2). The total number of women-operated farms
increased by 184,600 between 1982 and 2007, and 89 percent of the increase
occurred among farms with sales less than $10,000, largely among point farms. At
least some of the increase in women-operated farms with sales less than $10,000
was due to methodological changes in the Censuses of Agriculture since 1982 that
increased the count of small farms (see “Changes in Census Methodology” in the
appendix, p. 43). The undercoverage adjustment (to compensate for farms missed
by the census), for example, had a larger impact on women-operated farms with
sales under $10,000 than on larger farms. The adjustment increased the count
of women-operated farms with sales less than $10,000 by 37 percent in 1997,
compared with 9 percent for larger farms. 2
Farms with sales less than $10,000 now account for 78 percent of the farms operated
by women, up 16 percentage points from 1982 (table 1). The share of men’s
farms with sales less than $10,000 also increased—from 41 percent to 57 percent—
largely as a result of a 351-percent growth rate for farms with no sales. The high
share of women-operated farms with sales less than $10,000 affects women
farmers’ demographic characteristics, commodity specialization decisions, tradeoffs
between farm and off-farm work, participation in government programs, and
landholdings.
Table 2
Change in the number of women-operated farms and ranches by sales
class, 1982 to 2007
Sales class 1
(2007 constant dollars)
Women-operated farms and ranches Distribution
of change
1982 2007 Change
———— Number ———— Percent
No sales 9,386 114,777 105,391 57.1
$1 to $999 12,737 32,639 19,902 10.8
$1,000 to $9,999 53,440 91,752 38,312 20.8
$10,000 to $99,999 37,298 51,664 14,366 7.8
$100,000 or more 8,738 15,377 6,639 3.6
Total 121,599 306,209 184,610 100.0
Note: This table is derived from table 1, with the sales classes condensed for ease of exposition.
1Sales classes are defined in 2007 dollars, using the Producer Price Index for farm products to adjust
for price changes.
Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, compiled from 1982 and 2007 Census of Agriculture
data.
2 The undercoverage adjustment had a smaller effect on the count of men-operated farms.
The adjustment increased the number of men-operated farms by 28 percent for farms with
sales less than $10,000 and by 5 percent for those with sales of $10,000 or more.