America's Diverse Family Farms

USDA’s Economic Research Service recently released a report entitled America’s Diverse Family Farms which provides some interesting data and statistics. Most U.S. farms (99 percent) are family operations. Small family farms make up 90 percent of the U.S. farm count, but produce 22 percent of farm output. Midsize and large-scale farms (9 percent of farms) produce 68 percent of farm output. Only about 1.1 percent of U.S. are non-family farms. Field Reporter Greg Martin shares some additional statistics
Martin: “When it comes to production, most of the nation’s farms are considered small with gross cash farm income of less than $ 350,000 operate nearly half U.S. farmland, but small farms account for only 22 percent of production. Ninety percent of farms are small, and these farms account for 46 percent of the land operated by farms. Midsize and large-scale family farms account for the most production at 68 percent. Family farms of different types together account for 99 percent of farms and 90 percent of production.”
One of the striking characteristic of the principal farm operators’ advance age. Thirty-three percent of principal farm operators were at least 65 years of age in 2014, compared to only 12 percent of self-employed workers in nonagricultural businesses.