When it comes to farms across the U.S., the overwhelming majority are still family-owned – much like M&K Henderson Family Farm of Tipton County, Indiana, which has been in the Henderson family (shown above) for five generations and run by Monty and Austin Henderson.
98 percent of U.S. farms are family-owned and operated, and they accounted for over 80 percent of total value production according to the 2022 edition of its America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance Report from the USDA’s Economic Research Service, which provides the latest statistics on U.S. farms, including production, financial performance and farm household financial characteristics by farm size.
“Of these family farms, small family farms were the largest group accounting for 89 percent of all farms and operating 45 percent of all agricultural land,” says Noah Miller, Research Agricultural Economist with the USDA’s Economic Research Service.
The report also says many smaller farms are feeling some financial strain.
“The share of farms with a low-risk operating profit margin, OPM, varied by farm size in 2021,” says Miller. “54 percent of large family farms had low-risk OPMs, while, on average, only 18 percent of small-scale farms fell in this category. This indicates that smaller farms are at higher risk of financial stress.”
Despite that financial stress, farm incomes are still strong.
“Farm households in general are neither low income nor low wealth. The median total income of all US family farm households was over $20,000 greater than the median income of all US households in 2021, with median total household income for all family farms Increasing by over $10,000 from the previous year,” says Miller.
The report also says row crop farmers continue to take advantage of the federal crop insurance program.
“We found that in 2021, 14 percent of all farms participated in federal crop insurance. But for row crop farms, this figure is much higher at 62 percent. Indemnities from federal crop insurance were roughly proportional to harvested crop land. Midsize and large-scale family farms had 66 percent of all harvested cropland acres and received 84 percent of the indemnities,” says Miller.
However, that same report says small family farms only generated 18 percent of the total value of production for 2021.
Click HERE to read the full 2022 Edition of America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance report from the USDA’s Economic Research Service.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s news report.
