[Agriculture Fact Book 98]

Land Tenure

Land tenure describes the farm operator’s ownership interest in the land farmed. The major land tenure categories are (1) full owners, who own all the land they operate, (2) part owners, who own some and rent the remainder of their land, and (3) tenants, who rent all of their land or work on shares for others. The majority of farms in the 1996 Agricultural Resource Management Study (53 percent) reported full ownership of the land they operated, while 38 percent owned part and rented part of the farmland they operated. Only 9 percent of operations reported that they rented all of their land.

Part owners generally operate the largest farms, averaging 732 acres in 1996, followed by tenants with 636 acres and full owners with 227 acres per farm. Part owners account for the largest share of acreage operated (61 percent of the total in 1996).

Gross farm sales are also concentrated on part-owner operations (51 percent of gross farm sales in 1996). The average value of gross farm sales for part owners in 1996 was $114,443, about $31,900 less than the average for tenants at $146,335. Gross farm sales for full-owner operations were much smaller, averaging $47,708.

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