Chapter 2 - Farm Operators
Chapter 2 - Farm Operators
Farm operators are those that make the day-to-day management decisions for the farm. Until a few years ago, USDA surveys only gathered information for one operator per farm – the primary operator. But many farms have more than one operator and only a limited amount of personal information is available for farms with up to three operators.
Operator characteristics for family-owned broiler farms surveyed are summarized in Table 2.13 and compared to operators of all family farms with at least $50,000 in gross cash farm income. Many farms, as defined in USDA statistics, are ‘extremely small’, with very little farming activity or income derived from farming. Almost all commercial broiler operations meet the $50,000 sales cutoff, so this cutoff was chosen as a useful comparison.
The typical operator for the family-farm broiler operations surveyed was a white male in his 50s whose formal education ended after completing high school (Table 2.13) – much like other family-farm operators. Operators of broiler farms differed from other operators in two important dimensions: more of them were women and fewer of them had graduated from college. Eight percent of the broiler primary operators were women, compared with just over 4% of all family farms, but this only captures part of the story. Most spouse-operators were women, and respondents usually report the male as the primary operator when a husband and wife team operated the farm. When we include all operators of a broiler farm, 54% of broiler farms reported having at least one female operator, compared with 36% of all family farms.
Survey respondents were asked for the highest level of formal education that they completed and given four response categories to choose from – less than high school, completed high school, completed some college, and a college degree. More than 50% of all family-farm operators had completed at least some college education and less than 10% did not complete high school. Over 60% of broiler farm operators had no more than a high school diploma and 12% completed college, compared with 28% of all small-farm operators (Table 2.13).
Table 2.13 - Operator characteristics, contract broiler farms vs. all commercial farms
| Item | Broiler farms1 | All farms2, gcfi > $49,999 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary operator | Operator-spouses | Primary operators | Operator-spouses | |
| Number of farms | 17,005 | 8,280 | 488,716 | 188,386 |
| Operator age: | ||||
| Average age (yrs) | 55 | 53 | 55 | 54 |
| Percent < 40 yrs | 8.5 | 10.4 | 11.2 | 10.1 |
| Percent 65+ yrs | 20.6 | 13.9 | 21.9 | 16.4 |
| Gender and ethnicity (percent): | ||||
| Female | 8.0 | 92.2 | 4.4 | 93.0 |
| Hispanic | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| African American | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| American Indian | 1.2 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.03 |
| Asian | 1.1 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Education level (percent): | ||||
|
Less than high school |
13.5 |
9.9 |
7.3 |
8.0 |
|
High school only |
49.6 |
52.5 |
38.9 |
35.9 |
|
Some college |
24.9 |
24.5 |
25.3 |
29.1 |
|
College |
12.0 |
13.0 |
28.4 |
26.8 |
1Non-family farms are excluded.
Gcfi = gross cash farm income
2Table compares broiler operations with production contracts to all family farms with gross cash farm income of at least $50,000
Source: 2006 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, version 4, production contracts only.
