[Agriculture Fact Book 98]

3.    The U.S. Farm Sector

Number of Farms and Net Cash Income by Sales Class

The number of farms decreased slightly to 2,063,910 in 1996. Almost three quarters of all U.S. farms have annual sales of less than $50,000, while approximately 1 percent of all farms have sales greater than $1 million. Farms with over $250,000 in sales account for less than 8 percent of all farms but dominate American agricultural output. These large farms sell over 65 percent of the Nation's livestock and over 66 percent of the crops. They have nearly 64 percent of the gross cash income compared with 59 percent of the cash expenses. In 1996 they accounted for more than 78 percent of the Nation's net cash income from farming. Approximately 42 percent of direct Government payments went to these farms.

Table 3-8Table 3-8a
Table 3-9
Table 3-10table 3-10a

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