For statistical purposes, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture currently defines a farm as an establishment that sold or normally would have sold at
least $1,000 of agricultural products during the
year (USDA 2005). For the purpose of this study,
our sample includes only farms that are classified
as family farms that are organized as sole proprietorships, partnerships, or family corporations
because they are closely controlled by their operator and the operator’s household (USDA 2005).
Any operator households organized as nonfamily
corporations or cooperatives and farms run by
hired managers are excluded from this study because we are interested in farm business decisions
made by individual farmers and their family, not
by hired managers.