|
According to the 2007 Agricultural Resource Management
Survey (ARMS) (see box about the data
source used in this analysis),
834,339 farms (about 40 percent of all U.S. farms) received government payments
in 2007. The average payment per farm, $9,792, was down
24 percent from 2006—largely due to reductions
in price-sensitive commodity program payments.
The amount of government payments and their importance
to farm income varies by the sales classification of
the farm operation. In 2007, 57 percent of all farms
receiving government payments had less than $50,000 in
sales. This group accounted for 19 percent of all program
payments to farmers. Payment farms with less than $10,000
in sales received, on average, $2,040. Average payment
per farm increased as farm sales increased, with payment
farms generating over $1 million in sales receiving $75,601,
on average. Million-dollar farms represented less than
3 percent of all farms receiving payments in 2007, but
received over 22 percent of all government payments.
 d
Farms in the two smallest sales categories received
about 55 percent of the $3 billion in conservation program
payments in 2007, but only 5 percent of the $7.2 billion
in commodity program payments. Larger farms produce
a disproportionate share of program commodities—farms
with sales over $250,000 produced over three-fourths
of all program crops (corn, wheat, soybeans, etc.) in
2007.
As farms increase by sales class, farm payments
represent a smaller share of gross cash income. For payment
farms with less than $50,000 in sales, government payments
represented 15-20 percent of gross cash farm income in
2007. This share dropped to 3-5 percent for farms with
sales of $500,000 or more.
Get details for the charts above in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Further summaries of farms receiving government payments
are available by:
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet. See definitions of ERS' Farm
Typologies.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet. See definitions of ERS' Collapsed
Farm Typologies.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
Get these details in an Excel
spreadsheet.
This analysis is based on ARMS 2007 Phase III,
version 1 only. Version 1 provides the most complete
specification of direct government payments to
producers by program, and this analysis is about
the effects of government payments by program.
Marketing loan gains and net value of commodity
certificates, which were collected as separate
line items, were combined with all other Federal
program payments. Conservation program payments
include Wetlands Reserve Program, Farmable Wetlands
Program, Environmental Quality Incentive Program,
Conservation Security Program, Conservative Reserve
Enhancement Program, and Conservation Reserve Program
outlays. These estimates are not identical to
other analyses of government program payments that
are based on all versions of the ARMS 2007 Phase
III.
|
|
