Many agricultural producers supplement private approaches to risk mitigation by drawing from a suite of Federal programs to offset income losses stemming from either low yields or prices, however the decision over which programs to enroll can be complex
Agricultural production is fundamentally a risky prospect, with natural forces and market dynamics continually threatening to impact farmer revenues. A variety of Federal programs exist that help agricultural producers manage risks to yields, revenues, and profit margins. These programs vary over time and provide a diverse suite of options to mitigate risk in a variety of market conditions and production situations. The risk management tools that are most appropriate for a given producer often depend on the producer’s unique production characteristics, including what agricultural outputs are being produced, location, input prices, and enrollment in other Federal programs. This report provides an overview of Federal risk management programs and discusses the mechanics of each program, including eligibility criteria, payment calculations, interaction with other risk management programs, and the implications of various market conditions on select programs’ risk reduction potential.
At the national level, adoption of conservation tillage systems and structural practices do not differ between cash-rented, share-rented, and owner-operated fields
There is a longstanding debate about whether farmland renters treat the land the same as landowners. The debate is based on the premise that renters potentially invest less time and resources in land stewardship and are more concerned with short-run economic returns due to tenure insecurity. Since approximately 40 percent (or approximately 355 million acres) of farmland in the 48 contiguous States is rented, understanding farmland tenants’ motivations and behaviors offers potential implications for conservation, water quality, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat. This report explores patterns across cropland owner-operators and cropland renters in the adoption of conservation tillage, cover cropping, and six permanent structural practices. Data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey on corn, soybeans, cotton, barley, and sorghum growers show little evidence of systemic differences in conservation practice adoption on owner-operated fields compared to cash-rented fields.
A significant portion of energy production in the United States takes place on farmland, and for a small group of farm operators and their families, energy payments provided substantial income between 2011 and 2020
Historically, payments from businesses for energy development, particularly oil and natural gas, have been an important source of income for farmers who hosted energy production on their land. Since the early 2000s, energy markets experienced marked shifts: Price increases and technological improvements led to a dramatic increase in oil and gas production, and wind energy development experienced significant growth, leading to a new source of income for farmers. This report analyzes energy payments made to farmers to produce oil, natural gas, and wind energy on their land. The results show that 3.5 percent of farm operations received energy payments between 2011 and 2020, and that the average annual payment to the operators was more than $30,000 (in 2020 dollars), contributing substantially to farm household income and exceeding government payments to these operations.
Rejected Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land goes into a variety of land covers, including cropland, grassland, and Continuous Signup CRP
USDA spends nearly $2 billion annually on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), administered by USDA, Farm Service Agency. Most of the funding goes to landowners and operators to retire cropland for 10- to 15-year periods. The program aims to reduce soil erosion, increase wildlife habitat, improve water and air quality, and more by removing environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and establishing land covers. This report measures the degree to which the CRP displaces intensive land uses from production. The study compared land-use transitions of accepted and rejected offers from the 2016 General Signup and found that after rejection 16.6 percent of acres that landowners offered were planted in corn and soybeans, 23.4 percent were in wheat or left fallow, 20.7 percent in grassland, 14.7 percent in mixed forage, and 8.9 percent were idled or were in other land uses.
The top major use of U.S. land in 2017 was grassland pasture and rangeland, followed by forest-use land, cropland, special uses, miscellaneous other uses, and lastly urban land
Land uses and land-use changes have important economic and environmental implications. To stay abreast of the changes, USDA, Economic Research Service has provided major land-use estimates for the United States for more than 70 years. These estimates offer the only consistent accounting of all major uses of U.S. public and private land. This study presents the results of the 2017 inventory of U.S. major land uses and examines national and regional trends of land use over time. The United States has a total land area of 2.26 billion acres. In 2017, the largest shares of U.S. land were allocated to grassland pasture and range, forest use, and cropland. Notable changes presented in the report include a 4-million-acre increase in grassland pasture and range, accompanied by a 10-million-acre decrease in forest-use land.