Ninety-eight percent of U.S. farms are family farms and account for 87 percent of farm production, reported USDA Economic Research Service in its report America's Diverse Family Farms, which provides the latest statistics on U.S. farms, including production, financial performance, size, and ownership.
Production on small farms has fallen during the past 10 years, while larger farms’ production has increased. The largest share of the value of farm production (46 percent), however, occurs on large-scale family farms. Small family farms account for 49 percent of the value of poultry and eggs and 59 percent of hay production. Large-scale family farms produced the majority of commodities in 2020 — cotton (62 percent), dairy (73 percent), and high-value crops (57 percent).
The report shows that small family farms have higher risk of financial problems, or oper