The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reports that family-owned farms remain the backbone of the agriculture industry. The latest data come from the 2012 Census of Agriculture Farm Typology report and help shine light on the question, "What is a family farm?"
"As we wrap up mining the 6 million data points from the latest Census of Agriculture, we used typology to further explore the demographics of who is farming and ranching today," said NASS Statistics Division Director Hubert Hamer. "What we found is that family-owned businesses, while very diverse, are at the core of the U.S. agriculture industry. In fact, 97 percent of all U.S. farms are family-owned."
In Iowa, there are 6,266 hog farms and 94 percent, or 5,901, are family-owned businesses, according to USDA. Just 365 of the hog farms in the state are not family owned.
The farm typology report is a special data series that primarily focuses on the "family farm." By definition, a family farm is any farm where the majority of the business is owned by the operator and individuals related to the operator, including through blood, marriage, or adoption. Key highlights from the report include the following facts about family farms in the United States: