[Agriculture Fact Book 98]

2.    Structure of U. S. Agriculture

Farms by Sales Class

Farms are commonly classified in size groups based on the total value of their gross farm sales. Data from the annual Farms and Land in Farms report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service show that the greatest number of farms is in the lower sales classes, with over 61 percent reporting gross farm sales of less than $20,000 in 1997. According to the survey, these small farms accounted for only 16.9 percent of the acreage operated. A relatively small number of very large farms produce the largest share of farm sales. Only 2.8 percent of the farms in 1997 were large operations with sales of $500,000 or more, but they operated 16.5 percent of the land. Average farm size increases consistently with sales class, ranging from 65 acres per farm in the less than $2,500 category to 2,773 acres for farms with receipts of $500,000 or more.

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