Ag Report

Ag Report

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Christine Whitt is with USDA's Economic Research Service and is this report's chief author, The America's Diverse Family Farms 2020 edition describes characteristics of the two million US farms in 2019. This report looks at what these farms are producing, how much they profit, and their participation in federal agricultural programs. And for family farms we were able to look at characteristics of household well-being. There were three new sections this year, one on women in agriculture, direct sales and succession planning. The data comes from the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, or ARMS. ARMS is USDA primary source of information on farm businesses and associated households of the principal operator. What were some of the main conclusions of the 2020 edition of USDA's America's Diverse Family Farms report? We found that 98 percent of U.S. farms are family farms, and they account for 86 percent of farm production. Although small farms make up 90 percent of the farm count, large scale family farms have the largest share of the value of production at 44 percent. Small farms, though, still account for almost half of the value of poultry and hay production. In 2019, about 43 percent of farm households had income below that of the median for all U.S. households, and three percent had wealth less than the U.S. median. For more details, the entire report is available online at ERS. USDA.gov.
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