Large Family Farms Continue to Dominate U.S. Agricultural Production

Nearly all farms in the U.S. are designated as family farms, according to new data by the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. USDA found that in 2015, farms designated as family farms accounted for 99 percent of U.S. farms and 89 percent of production. On family farms, the principal operators and their relatives, by blood or marriage, own more than half of the business’s assets.

In 2015, 90 percent of U.S. farms were small family operations with under $350,000 in annual gross cash farm income, a measure of revenue that includes sales of crops and livestock, government payments and other farm-related income. These small farms, however, only accounted for 24 percent of the value of production.

By comparison, large-scale family farms with at least $1 million in gross annual cash income made up only 2.9 percent of U.S. farms but contributed 42 percent of total production. Nonfamily farms accounted for only 11 percent of agricultural production.

Source NAFB News