Large family farms produced 73% of US dairy value in 2024, ERS says

Large-scale family farms produced the majority of the value in several major US commodity groups in 2024, USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) reported in a Chart of Note published on 7 July 2026. The chart, by Katherine Lacy and Katherine Lim of ERS, drew on the report America's Farms and Ranches at a Glance: 2025 Edition, released in February 2026. The picture was not uniform, though: in hay, and in poultry and eggs, small family farms remained major producers.

Large-scale family farms were strongest in dairy, where they accounted for 73 percent of production value. They also produced 58 percent of the value of specialty crops, 52 percent each of cotton and beef, and 51 percent of cash grains and soybeans. ERS said these operations often benefit from economies of scale, which allow them to dominate high-value, high-acreage or capital-intensive sectors.

The shares shifted from the year before. Compared with 2023, large-scale family farms expanded their role in poultry and egg production but lost ground in cotton, where midsize family farms gained.

Where scale matters less, small family farms kept a large share. In 2024 they produced 51 percent of the value of hay and 35 percent of poultry and eggs. At an ERS webinar on the report on 10 February 2026, the authors said hay may be more accessible to smaller operations because it suits small acreage, and that the poultry sector is dominated by production contracts, which could reduce market risk and make it easier for small farms to take part and remain viable.

Midsize family farms contributed between 6 and 32 percent of production value across the commodity groups. Their largest roles were in hogs at 32 percent, poultry and eggs at 27 percent, and cash grains and soybeans at 25 percent. Nonfamily farms had their highest share in specialty crops, at 30 percent, and between 6 and 18 percent elsewhere. Compared with 2023, nonfamily farms reduced their share of both cattle and hog production.

ERS defines a family farm as one where the majority of the business is owned by the operator and individuals related to the operator. Size is measured by gross cash farm income (GCFI): cash receipts, government payments and other farm-related income. Small family farms have GCFI below $350,000 a year, midsize family farms from $350,000 to under $1 million, and large-scale family farms $1 million or more. Nonfamily farms are those where the operator and relatives do not own a majority of the business, such as farms with principal operators from different families, large farms run by publicly held corporations, or farms run by a hired manager.

The data come from the 2024 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), run annually by ERS and the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and describe nearly 1.9 million US farms. According to a companion ERS chart published in May 2026, about 86 percent of farms in 2024 were small family farms; they operated 40 percent of agricultural land but produced 17 percent of production value. Large-scale family farms were 5 percent of farms, operated 33 percent of the land and produced 50 percent of the value. Midsize family farms were 6 percent of farms with 18 percent of both land and value, and nonfamily farms were 3 percent of farms with 14 percent of value, down from 17 percent in 2023. Family farms overall made up about 97 percent of farms, 91 percent of land operated and 85 percent of production value.

For comparison, Farm Policy News at the University of Illinois reported in December 2024, citing the previous edition, that large-scale family farms had accounted for 48 percent of production value and 31 percent of agricultural land in 2023.

Photo: Corey Coyle / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Sources: USDA Economic Research Service (Charts of Note, July and May 2026; America's Farms and Ranches at a Glance: 2025 Edition webinar), Farm Policy News (University of Illinois)