Demographics, production characteristics and financial performance executive summary: a comparison of low-sales, medium-sales, and large family farm operations in the United States

Abstract

The financial performance, resilience and long run sustainability of small and mid-sized farms and ranches are an important concern for agriculture's stakeholders and policy makers. A determined effort to uncover the ingredients of small operations' successes initiated this analysis of data from the 2008 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)3 that is conducted by USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). This document is an executive summary of the findings from the three fact sheets, and it will detail the methods used to categorize operations from the 2008 ARMS data. Broad themes are summarized from results and opportunities for future research noted.