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How many of these farmers are hobbyists, though? Or, use the farm land to offset their taxes (like they do a lot where I live)? Maybe farming is their second job, rather than the other way around?

If you go to the actual report, you'll see that the "very large scale farms" have the smallest percent of acres while also providing the largest value. Maybe the small-scale farms are inefficiently managed and operated.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/108074/eib-263...

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bigfatkitten a day ago | parent [-]

The guy running two head of cattle on 1 acre just so he can claim to be a "farmer" for the tax benefits will never have a profitable operation.

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bluGill a day ago | parent | next [-]

Not quite true. He can take that 2 head of cattle to the bank for a loan for 40 acres and that will make money - not a living but a profit. Then a few years latter more land and now he is a farmer.

i work with a number of people on that plan. It is an open question how many will complete it and become full time farmers.

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forgetfreeman a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Thing is you can't get an ag exemption without provable business. Not sure what that looks like elsewhere but here you have to do a minimum of $10k gross sales. As small as that number is it's surprisingly difficult to hit fucking around.

	▲	bigfatkitten a day ago \| parent [-]
		What passes muster will vary between jurisdictions of course, but there are many ways of making a company appear on paper as though it has turnover. A classic is where the proprietor writes the company a check, and then the company writes him a check for the same amount.