Farm assets remain a large portion of the operator household portfolio

The distribution of a household's wealth across asset types reflects livelihood orientation and also the extent that changes in particular asset markets have affected household net worth. For low-sales farm households, about half of household assets consist of farm assets, not including dwellings. Dwellings and financial assets (retirement and nonretirement) compose another 30 percent. As expected, given the greater importance of farm income, households associated with larger farms have a greater share of their assets (79 percent) in farm assets. Even though high-sales farm households have more than double the net worth of low-sales farm households, those with low sales have, on average, about $7,000 more in financial assets like stocks. This chart comes from Agricultural Income and Finance Outlook, AIS-90, December 2010.

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