America’s Diverse Family Farms: 2019 Edition

by Christine Whitt, James M. MacDonald, and Jessica E. Todd

This report provides an overview of U.S. farms, including the latest statistics on production, financial performance, and farm household characteristics by farm size. Among the findings, 98 percent of U.S. farms are family farms and they accounted for 88 percent of farm production in 2018. Most farms are small (90 percent), and they accounted for 21 percent of production that year.

Errata: On March 13, 2020, the report America’s Diverse Family Farms: 2019 Edition was revised to correct an error in the chart and related text in the Government Payments and Federal Crop Insurance section. The bar chart on page 19 incorrectly identified the percent of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) payments received by each of the farm types. The original chart reported the share of all conservation payments received by each farm type, and not the share of CRP payments. In effect, retirement, off-farm occupation, and low-sales farms received 75 percent of CRP payments in 2018, and not 49 percent as originally reported.

See related webinar: Webinar – Thursday, December 12 at 4:00 PM EST

Keywords: family farms, agricultural production, farm typology, small farms, midsize farms, large farms, farm household income, Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), principal farm operator, spouse, farm financial performance, operating profit margin (OPM), off-farm income, self-employment, health care benefits, farm ownership, Government payments

In this publication...

• Entire Report