|
What
is a Farm?
By
Ross Korves, Deputy Chief Economist
American Farm Bureau Federation
Each year
the United States Department of Agriculture surveys about 8,500
farms and ranches to gather in-depth information. From the 1998
survey data, eight farm types were identified, based on dollar
sales of crops and livestock, total value of farm assets, total
operator income, and other occupation information.
The eight
farm types are divided into two groups. Within the small family
farms group are those types of farms that have sales totaling
less than $250,000 per year. The other group includes farms with
sales totaling more than $250,000 per year.
Small
Family Farms
(sales less than $250,000)*
1. Retirement
farms
-- Small farms whose operators report they are retired (excludes
limited-resource farms operated by retired farmers).
2. Residential/lifestyle
farms
-- Small farms whose operators report a major occupation other
than farming (excludes limited resource farms with operators
reporting a non-farm major occupation).
3. Limited-resource
farms
-- Any small farm with: gross sales less than $100,000, total
farm assets less $150,000, and total operator household income
less than $20,000. Limited-resource farmers may report farming,
a non-farm occupation, or retirement as their major occupation.
4. Farming
occupation/lower-sales farms
-- Small farms with sales less than $100,000 whose operators
report farming as their major occupation (excludes limited-resource
farms whose operators report farming as their major occupation).
5. Farming
occupation/higher-sales farms
-- Small farms with sales between $100,000 and $249,000 whose
operators report farming as their major occupation.
Other
Farms
6. Large
family farms
-- Farms with sales between $250,000 and $499,999.
7. Very
large family farms
-- Farms with sales of $500,000 or more.
8. Non-family
farms
-- Farms organized as non-family corporations or cooperatives,
as well as farms operated by hired managers.
* The $250,000
cutoff for small farms was suggested by the National Commission
on Small Farms.
The numbers
that jump off the page are the high numbers of retirement farms
and residential/lifestyle farms. These two types total over 1.1
million farms and account for 54.5 percent of all farms.
More than
80 percent of the estimated total of 2.06 million farms (about
1.7 million farms) rely mostly on non-farm income.
Family farms
with sales of $100,000 or more and non-family farms make up nearly
20 percent of all farms. These farms on average get half or more
of their income from farm sources and have total assets of $750,000
or more. These groups are the ones most people think about when
farm policy issues are discussed.
The following
table shows some of the information by size of farm.
|
USDA Farm
Type |
|
#
Of Farms
1,000 |
%
Of
Farms |
Average
Gross
Income
Per Farm
Dollars |
Average
Net
Income
Per Farm
Dollars |
Net
Income as % of Gross Income |
Average
Off
Farm Income
Dollars |
|
Retirement |
290.9 |
14.1 |
12,255 |
2,936 |
24.0% |
47,158 |
|
Residential/Lifestyle |
834.3 |
40.4 |
13,780 |
1,324 |
9.6% |
76,390 |
|
Limited Resource |
150.3 |
7.3 |
7,361 |
-591 |
-8.0% |
13,153 |
|
Farming Sales
Less than $100,000 |
422.2 |
20.4 |
35,800 |
1,031 |
2.9% |
37,186 |
Farming Sales
$100,000 - $249,999 |
171.5 |
8.3 |
161,036 |
25,277 |
15.7% |
28,717 |
Farming Sales
$250,000 - $499,999 |
91.9 |
4.5 |
348,769 |
52,866 |
15.2% |
47,252 |
Farming Sales
$500,000+ |
61.3 |
3.0 |
977,037 |
213,083 |
21.8% |
33,240 |
|
Non-family
Farms |
42.3 |
2.0 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
ALL FARMS |
2064.7 |
100.0 |
84,651 |
14,196 |
16.8% |
52,628 |
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