Q. Is corporate
farming becoming more prevalent?
A. Corporate farms account for a small
but growing share of all farms and a significant and growing
share of farm sales. That growth is driven by the expansion
of family corporations, with some growth among closely
held nonfamily corporations. Census data report that nonfamily
corporations with more than 10 stockholders owned 1,029
farms in 1997 (0.05 percent of the total). While those
farms are usually large (sales per farm of $3.6 million),
they still accounted for only 1.9 percent of all farm
sales, down from 3 percent in 1978 (see table).
More recent data based on the smaller Agricultural Resource
and Management Survey (ARMS) samples show no increase
in the share of sales by nonfamily corporate farms through
2002. Large corporations focus on a few commodities: 60
percent of their $3.8 billion in 1997 sales came from
three livestock sectors—poultry, cattle, and hogs—while
fruits/nuts and nursery crops accounted for more than
half of their crop sales.
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