Family and Larger-Than-Family Farms: Their Relative Position in American Agriculture

Excerpt from the report Highlights: An overwhelming majority of United States farms are family—operated; the larger-than-family farms represent only a small proportion of all farms. Thus, in 1954, there were 24 family farms for each larger-than-family farm. Dominance of family farms was most pronounced in the Lake States, the Com Belt, and the Northern Plains, where there were 48 family farms for each larger-than-family farm. It was least pronounced in the Mountain and Pacific Regions, where there were only 9 family farms for each larger-than-family farm. The proportion of family farms increased from 95.2 percent of all farms in 1944 to 96 percent in 1954. This increase was most marked with respect to large commercial farms. In 1954, family farms constituted 86.6 percent of all farms with $5,000 or more of farm marketings, as compared with 83 percent in 1949. The number of family farms selling$5,000 or more of farm products increased from 1 million in 1949 to 1.2 million in 1954 — a 20-percent increase. In contrast, large-than-family farms with these marketings decreased for the same period from 202,000 to 174,000 — a 14-percent decline. The increasing proportion of family farms, especially in the larger producing groups, was evident also in all main farming regions. Again, the largest increase was registered in the Lake States, the Corn Belt, and the Northern Plains, and the smallest in the Mountain and Pacific Regions

Family-Size Farms in U.S. Agriculture

Family farms and large-scale farming operations continue proportionally almost unchanged in their traditional regional locations. Family farms account for the bulk of farm production in the north-central part of the country. Large-scale farming is, as it always was, the rule in California, Florida, and some other States. Farming in the rest of the country is in between; family farms have a slight majority. For the country as a whole, family farms accounted for 95 percent of all farms and for 63 percent of all farm products sold in 1949. In 1969, these proportions were 95 percent and 62 percent

Our 31,000 Largest Farms

Excerpts from the report Preface: This report is based mainly on information shown in a special tabulation of 1964 Census of Agriculture data for farms with annual sales of $100,000 or more. The tabulation was obtained from the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce. This tabulation permits us, for the first time, to present comprehensive national and regional information on the largest farms, by sales group, including farms with annual sales of$1 million or more. These are the latest and only data available nationwide on the largest farms. The data were not available until 1969, and no new data are expected for several years to come. Administrators, legislators, and the general public have expressed widespread interest and concern with respect to large-scale farms. This report will provide information that should help put issues concerning these farms into proper perspective, especially as concerns their importance in the future organizational structure of agriculture

Comparison of Age Levels of Farmers and Other Self-employed Persons

Excerpts from the report Conclusion: Information presented in this paper does not support the notion that farm operators are getting older than self-employed people in other occupations. If anything, farmers in the expanding sector of our farm economy tend to be somewhat younger than other self- employed workers. Farmers in this group today account for more than four-fifths of total farm production. There are, however, a great number of small-scale farms on which we find an aging population of farmers. Despite the somewhat younger operators on the larger farms, it is true that on the whole, we are getting an agricultural population of older farmers. But it should be emphasized that, while this represents a very real human problem for a large number of small-scale late middle-aged and older farmers, it does not pose any significant problem to the commercial farming industry as such

The Expanding and the Contracting Sectors of American Agriculture

Excerpt from the report Preface: This report is based mainly on data obtained from the Census of Agriculture for the period 1939-59. Census data were adjusted, however, in three main respects. First, value of sales (marketings) for all years considered were measured in terms of 1959 prices received by farmers. Second, data on number of farms, value of sales, and acreage for all years were (1) adapted to the 1959 census definition of a farm, (2) corrected for census undercounting, and (3) adjusted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's aggregate estimates. Finally, farms were grouped by value of sales for various years before 1959, according to the interval limits of the value-of-sales grouping of farms in the 1959 Census of Agriculture

Our 100,000 Biggest Farms: Their Relative Position in American Agriculture

Excerpt from the report Summary: An increasing proportion of total sales of farm products is coming from farms with $40,000 or more of marketings. For example, in 1959 the proportion was 33 percent, compared with 16 percent in 1939. This increase came mainly from the expanding number of farms in the group rather than from the increasing value of sales per farm. From 1939 to 1959, the increase in number of farms with sales of$40,000 to $99,999 was 242 percent while the increase in output per farm was only 8 percent. The number of farms with sales of$100,000 or more increased 300 percent, compared with a 10-percent increase in output per farm