Farming Mostly a Family Business

Family farms account for about 99 percent of total U.S. farms and 89 percent of production according to a recent USDA study.

Economist Bob Hoppe said of those family farms, many are of the smaller variety.

“That means they have gross revenues of less than $350,000. They make up 90 percent of the farm count and they operate about half the farmland but they only account for about 24 percent of farm production in total.”

Larger family farms with revenues of more than $1 million make up 42 percent of production.

Hoppe said farm income can come from a variety of a sources, particularly for very small family farms with revenues of less than $150,000.

“Those groups by and large depend on off farm income most commonly would be wage and salary jobs and then for the older ones they would have retirement income from sources from things like social security.”