Families dominate farm ownership, USDA report says

Farming remains overwhelmingly a family business, according to an annual government report.

The report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, titled "America's Diverse Family Farms," said 98% of farms are family farms of varying sizes, accounting for 88% of farm production.

About 90% of farms qualify as small farms, the report said, accounting for 48% of farmland and 21% of production. Large-scale family farms accounted for the largest share of production, 46%.

Many operators of small and mid-sized family farms rely on off-farm work to supplement their agricultural income, the report said. Overall, 45% of principal operators work off the farm, and an identical proportion of the spouses of principal farm operators also work off the farm; the report said "relatively few spouses on retirement farms and on very large farms hold jobs off the farm." Where the spouses of principal operators held off-farm jobs, a majority listed health care benefits as a reason for doing so.

The USDA study said "the vast majority" of farms, about 90%, operate as sole proprietorships owned by a single individual or family, accounting for nearly 61% of the value of production.

The report said 71% of farms received no farm-related government payments in 2018.