USDA releases America's Diverse Family Farms report

On Friday the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service released the 2020 edition of its America's Diverse Family Farms report, which provides the latest statistics on farm production, financial performance, and household characteristics by farm size. Family farms are those where the majority of the farm is owned by the principal operator. The report uses data from the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, an annual USDA poll of about 14,450 farms.

Among the report's findings: 

• 98 percent of U.S. farms are family farms.
• Family farms accounted for 86% of farm production in 2019.
• 90% of family farms are small, meaning they have a gross cash farm income (GCFI) of less than $350,000.
• Small farms accounted for 49% of land operated by farms and 22% of production in 2019.
• 10.7% of small family farms had principal operators who reported retiring from farming in 2019, but said they continued to farm on a small scale.
• 41.4% of small family-farm operators reported having a primary occupation other than farming.
• 32.4% of U.S. farms are small family farms whose principal operators report farming as their primary occupation and make less than $150,000 in GCFI.
• 5.1% of U.S. farms are small family farms whose principal operators report farming as their primary occupation and make between $150,000 and $349,999 in GCFI.
• Almost half of U.S. farms had production valued at $6,000 or less. 
• Between 62% and 81% of small family farms have a high risk of financial problems based on their operating profit margin. However, that figure can be deceptive because many small farmers rely on off-farm jobs, and that income is not reflected in the profit margin.

ERS hosted a free webinar Friday to go over the major points of the report. Click here to watch it.