Report: 96 Percent of Farms are Family Owned

A report released this month by the USDA Economic Research Service shows that 96 percent of U.S. farms with crop production are family owned. The report, Farm Size and the Organization of U.S. Crop Farming, stated that businesses owned and operated by family groups continue to dominate agricultural production, providing 87 percent of the value of crop production. Family farm is defined as one in which the principal operator, and people related to the principal operator by blood or marriage, own more than half of the farm business. The report also highlights the change in cropland and farms, indicating that mid-size crop farms have declined while farm numbers at the extremes (large and small) are growing. Read the report.