Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: Family Farm Report ... - AgWeb

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How Was the Study Conducted?The 2007 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) is the mainsource of data in the Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition. ARMS is an annualsurvey designed and conducted by ERS and the National AgriculturalStatistics Service (NASS), another USDA agency. In addition to ARMS,various censuses of agriculture and ERS farm sector income estimates areused in this report, particularly in the analysis of long-term trends. The reportuses the farm classification system developed by ERS to examine farm structurein the United States.viStructure and Finances of U.S. Farms: Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition / EIB-66Economic Research Service/USDA
IntroductionThe Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition presents comprehensive informationabout the structure and finances of the diverse types of family farms in theUnited States. This report—like earlier editions—covers a variety of standardtopics, such as the number and size of U.S. farms, the characteristicsof their operators, and the finances of farm businesses and the householdsthat operate them. The report also presents materials on the geography offarming, aging operators and the future of farming, and limited-resourcefarmers.The diversity of U.S. farms is partly attributable to the official farm definition,which includes farms that are very small in terms of sales of farm products.A farm is currently defined—for statistical purposes—as any place fromwhich $1,000 or more of agricultural products (crops and livestock) weresold or normally would have been sold during the year under consideration.This definition has been in place since August 1975, by joint agreementamong USDA, the Office of Management and Budget, and the U.S. CensusBureau (Sommer et al., 1998, p. 4).USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) developed a farm classification(see box, “Farm Types, 2007”) to group farms—particularly family farms—Farm Types, 2007Small family farms(gross farm sales less than $250,000) 1Large-scale family farms(gross farm sales of $250,000 or more)Retirement farms. Small farms whose operators reportthey are retired, although they continue to farm on asmall scale. These operations sell enough farm products(at least $1,000 worth) to qualify as farms under thecurrent farm definition. 2Residential/lifestyle farms. Small farms whose operatorsreport a major occupation other than farming. 3 Thecategory also includes a small number of farms—8percent of the group in 2007—whose operators are notin the labor force.Farming-occupation farms. Small family farmswhose operators report farming as their majoroccupation. 3• Low-sales farms. Gross sales less than $100,000.• Medium-sales farms. Gross sales between$100,000 and $249,999.Large family farms. Farms with gross sales between$250,000 and $499,999.Very large family farms. Farms with gross sales of$500,000 or more.Nonfamily farmsNonfamily farms. Any farm where the operator andpersons related to the operator do not own a majority ofthe business.Note: Limited-resource farms are no longer a separate category in the classification, starting with the 2005 Agricultural ResourceManagement Survey.1USDA’s National Commission on Small Farms selected $250,000 in gross sales in a given year as the cutoff between small and large-scalefarms (USDA, NCSF, 1998, p. 28).2A farm is defined as any place that produced and sold—or normally would have produced and sold—at least $1,000 of agriculturalproducts during a given year (USDA, NASS, 2008).3Major occupation is defined as the occupation at which operators spent the majority of their work time.1Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition / EIB-66Economic Research Service/USDA
Page 1 and 2: United StatesDepartment ofAgricultu
Page 3 and 4: United StatesDepartmentof Agricultu
Page 5 and 6: References. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 7: Distribution of farms, total produc
Page 11 and 12: As in previous issues, the Agricult
Page 13 and 14: came from technological change, suc
Page 15 and 16: percent of the farms in both groups
Page 17 and 18: “point system” assigns values f
Page 19 and 20: Full economic costs of milk product
Page 21 and 22: Cow-calf enterprises offer three ad
Page 23 and 24: Location of U.S. Farms and Producti
Page 25 and 26: Table 4Farms and production by reso
Page 27 and 28: majority of farms in the region, 65
Page 29 and 30: Farm Operators, Principal and Secon
Page 32 and 33: farms. Since these farmers produce
Page 34 and 35: Farm Income and Financial Performan
Page 36 and 37: Defining the Financial MeasuresSome
Page 38 and 39: Operator Household Income and Net W
Page 40 and 41: of operator household net worth, re
Page 42: About three-fourths of medium-sales
Page 45 and 46: ContractingContracts can potentiall
Page 47 and 48: Types of ContractsA contract is a l
Page 49 and 50: per year rather than below the pove
Page 52: general—are overwhelmingly male.
Page 55 and 56: Farming in Metropolitan AreasFarmin
Page 57 and 58: Figure 15Mean operator household in
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into the Twenty-first Century. Marv
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U.S. Department of Agriculture, Nat
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In fact, the number of farms in eac
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(version 3). Respondents provide wh
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iefing room. Both sets of estimates
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• Farm operators forget minor or
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ecause the sector accounts extend b
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