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Agricultural
Income and Finance Situation and Outlook— This
annual periodical provides historical estimates and forecasts
of financial information that gauge the financial health
of the Nation's farmers and ranchers. Financial
information is provided for the whole farm sector (including
contractors and landlords), for all farms, for farm businesses
with a principal operator whose major occupation is farming,
and for the households of principal farm operators. Common
topics include trends in income, value added, receipts,
government payments, expenses, debt, assets, and financial
performance. Because of the great diversity across
the farm sector many indicators are presented by size
of farm and other relevant classification schemes. (12/07)
Whole-Farm Approaches
to a Safety Net—In recent U.S. farm policy debates,
several "whole-farm revenue" programs have been proposed
as a new form of safety net that would be available to
all U.S. farms. A whole-farm program is based on revenues
from all farming activities added together and is not
linked to the production of particular commodities. This
report looks at the risk management potential for such
programs and the obstacles to implementing such a whole-farm
revenue approach to a farm safety net. (6/06)
Economic Well-Being of Farm
Households—Income and wealth of the average farm
household now exceed those of the average nonfarm household—wealth
by a large margin. And households most at risk for income
variability because farm income is more than one-third
of household income are the small segment that operates
commercial farms (with sales greater than $250,000 per
year). They hold substantial household wealth, on average,
which can cushion uncertain farm income. (3/06)
Changing
Federal Tax Policies Affect Farm Households Differently—Recent
Federal tax legislation has reduced income tax rates for
both individuals and businesses and cut the number of
farm estates that owe Federal estate taxes. Commercial
farmers are the primary beneficiaries of the reduced business
and estate taxes. (11/05)
How
Do U.S. Farmers Plan for Retirement?—Retirement
and succession planning are of considerable importance
to farm households, and there are good reasons to
believe that farm households are affected by savings
and retirement policies in ways that are different
from the rest of the Nation's households. For example,
compared with the U.S. labor force, farm operators
are considerably older. In addition to working past
traditional retirement age, farm operator households
tend to have more varied income sources and forms
of wealth, than the general population. While fewer
farm operators are covered by employer-sponsored
pensions than are nonfarmers, most farm operators
save from current income on a regular basis and have
accumulated diversified financial portfolios, including
individual retirement savings. Amber Waves (4/05).
The Conservation Reserve
Program: Economic Implications for Rural America—The
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) offers incentives for
producers and landowners to voluntarily retire highly
erodible and other environmentally sensitive cropland
from production for 10-15 years. While the program's benefits
to the environment, CRP participants, and other crop farmers
have made it a recurring focus of farm program legislation,
the CRP's effect on farm communities has been a concern.
Enrollment in CRP could weaken demand for farm inputs
and agricultural marketing services, and many rural economies
depend on such ancillary services. Nonetheless, the results
of a statistical analysis indicate that, in the aggregate,
impacts on rural communities have been limited. Amber
Waves (10/04).
Farm
Payments: Decoupled Payments Increase Households' Well-Being,
Not Production—Traditionally, subsidies in the
U.S. and elsewhere have linked payments to current prices
and production. Such subsidies distort, or alter, the
signals sent by market prices. In 1996, the U.S. revamped
its farm support and introduced a farm payment that breaks
the links between the amounts paid to farmers, their level
of production, and market prices. There is little evidence
that these decoupled payments distort production. Their
primary consequence has been an improvement in the overall
well-being of recipient households that own base acres,
where well-being is defined broadly to encompass income,
wealth, and consumption, as well as how people choose
to spend their time. Amber Waves (2/03).
Income,
Wealth and the Economic Well-Being of Farm Households—This
report examines factors that affect the economic well-being
of farm operator households based on USDA's ARMS survey
data. The analysis uses a new concept of economic well-being
that captures farm household wealth and expenditures in
addition to more conventional income measures. The report
examines whether farm households are inherently disadvantaged
and whether they have lower incomes, lower wealth, and
lower household expenditures than nonfarm households.
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