
What Does The American Farm Look Like?
USDA's annual snapshot of America's farms and ranches captures what characteristics and trends.
“It looks at the characteristics of U.S. farms and ranches, generally looking at what farms produce aspects of their financial situation, their participation in federal agricultural programs. We have two new sections; the first one looks at farmers use of unpriced commodity storage both on and off farm, and the second section looks at farmers use of precision agriculture technologies by far m types as well as farmers stated reasons for adopting those technologies.”
Agriculture Department research economist Katherine Lim is among the authors of the latest edition of “America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance”. That report released this past December covers data from 2023.
“We find that family farms remain the dominant farm type in the U.S. They make up 96% of farms in 2023 and small family farms make up 86% of the farm count.”
When looking at the concentration of farm production.
“We do find that production is concentrated among large scale family farms, which made-up 4% of farms, but 48% of the value of production in 2023.”
When looking at our nations, farms and ranches in the context of government payments.
“We find that Conservation reserve program payments were generally more concentrated among small family farms than other types of government payments. When we look at federal crop insurance participation, in 2023 overall 16% participated in federal crop insurance, which was actually up from 14% in 2022.”
And when breaking down farm household income.
“We find that in 2023 they exceeded those of U.S. household generally, but actually the majority of farm households had farming losses and were receiving the majority of their income from off farm sources.”
Findings from new questions asking about farm commodity storage include.
“For on farm storage, use of that is more common among larger farms. Roughly 60% of very large family farms have on-farm storage, some on price, commodity on farm as of December 1st, 2023.
Regarding trends in use of precision agriculture equipment to add technologies.
“Larger scale family farms are more likely to use these technologies than small family farms. That might be due to the benefits they receive from using these technologies as well as they can be expensive. So, the capital investment required to get them set up.”
For additional numbers and details, read the USDA's “America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance” report.
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