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 USDA.  Researchers found that in 2015, farms designated as family farms accounted for 99% of U.S. farms and 89% 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% 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% 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% of U.S. farms but contributed 42 percent of total production. Nonfamily farms accounted for only 11% of agricultural production.

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