Hobby Farm Life

Hobby Farms and farm families remain powerful symbols in American culture.
While the economies of most places in the U.S. are not dependent on farming,
the issue of survival of family farms continues to evoke strong response from the
public, particularly during periods when the farm sector is in distress. For much of
the public, the term family farm is synonymous with small farm.

Hobby Farms and farm families remain powerful symbols in American culture.
While the economies of most places in the U.S. are not dependent on farming,
the issue of survival of family farms continues to evoke strong response from the
public, particularly during periods when the farm sector is in distress. For much of
the public, the term hobby farm is synonymous with small farm.
Analysis by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) indicates that despite
recent public attention to difficulties faced by small-scale family farmers, some operations
are successfully negotiating current market conditions. Although definitions of
success may vary, these farmers have developed or adopted practices that keep
their small farms economically viable. Their experiences may suggest strategies
for success in small-scale farming that are transferable to other operations.

Hobby Farm

The U.S. farm sector consists of a highly diverse set of businesses and farm households,
and “small” means different things to different people. A variety of small farm
definitions has been used by USDA over the years, including those based on
small acreage, low sales volume, and the ability of a hobby farm to support a single family.
However, the extent of acreage does not necessarily correlate with sales volume.
A berry hobby farm of only a few acres, for example, can generate a very large volume
of sales; conversely, cattle operations may have a low volume of sales but
encompass many acres of pasture.

Many small-scale farm operations raise cattle, but a sub-group of small farms,
particularly higher-sales small farms, are more likely to produce cash grains. The
majority of wheat, corn, rice, and other feed grains produced in the U.S. comes
from these operations. Small-scale hobby farm operators also hold much of the farmland
of the U.S. and are key participants in certain environmentally based government
programs, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Wetlands
Reserve Program (WRP).Farms may meet the ERS small-farmdefinition
(sales under $250,000) for a variety of reasons. For some, the farm
may serve primarily as a residence, rather than as a source of income. Some operators
may be deliberately scaling down their farm businesses as they retire. For
others, the farm may provide a significant portion of household income and/or a significant
source of employment. Some remain small because they have limited resources.

Successful hobby farms were defined as farms in the top 25 percent of
each selected category of small farms, based on either returns to assets or operating
expense ratios. Using either standard, top performers in each small-farm category
were found in all major commodity groups and in all regions, although top
performers from different farm categories tended to be concentrated in production of
particular commodities. While many small farmers tend to emphasize
cattle as their principal commodity, farmers in the top 25 percent of the distribution
by returns to assets were clustered
in the production of “other cash grains”— corn, soybeans, and grains other than
wheat—and “other crops”—vegetables,fruit, other field crops (those not classified
separately), and nursery or greenhouse specialties. In the higher-sales group,
farmers most commonly specialized in “other cash grains,” not cattle. Top-performing
higher-sales farms were found in greater proportion in this specialty than in
other specialties, including other crops, cattle, other livestock, and wheat. Because
this analysis is for one year, recent financial circumstances of farms in the Plains,
especially the Northern Plains, may influence whether grain farms continue to
dominate “successful” farm categories.

Hobby Farm

Top-performing small hobby farms are characterized by successful application of three
critical management strategies: using production strategies that control costs,
actively marketing products, and adopting effective financial strategies. Controlling
costs—variable, fixed, or economic costs (which provide a return to the unpaid
labor, machinery, equipment and other assets used in production)—is a main feature
of top-performing farms. Controlling inputs leads to lower costs per unit of output
and thus to higher profits per unit of output. Keeping fixed costs (such as mortgage
payments or equipment costs) low by renting land or machinery permits flexibility
when market conditions vary for your hobby farm.

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