Overview
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Agricultural production is shifting to larger farms, and farmers
are relying more on contracts--and less on spot markets--to buy and
sell inputs and products. Even so, small farms are still important,
and most transactions continue to be made through spot markets.
Research on "farm structure" covers these elements, and also
includes the ownership and organization of farm businesses; the
links among farms, farm households, buyers, input providers, and
contractors; and the mix of inputs and products on farms. Farm
structure both affects and is affected by public policy and the
economy at all levels. The ERS research program in farm structure
describes important developments in the farm sector and for
specific commodities, assesses their causes, and evaluates their
impacts on productivity, financial performance, prices, and
environmental outcomes.
ERS researchers seek to identify and analyze the key factors
affecting farm structure and prepare periodic reports on the
changing structure and finances of the diverse types of U.S. farms,
including the Family Farm Reports (see the latest in the series, Structure and Finances of
U.S. Farms: Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition, or see all in the Family Farm
Report series).
ERS also tracts the use of contracts in agriculture across time
and commodities (see reports in the Agricultural Contracting Update
series).
Finally, ERS and NASS collect and publish data
(see Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)) on
structural characteristics summarized annually for various
classifications of farms, such as commodity specialization and
sales class, and various farm typologies (e.g., rural residence,
intermediate and commercial farms) to help better understand the
changing nature of farming.