Farming Efficiency and the Determinants of Multiple Job Holding by Farm Operators

The extent to which farm families engage inoff-farm employment activities is a topic ofcentralimportancetounderstandingthefinan-cial well-being of farm households. The degreeof financial stress experienced by U.S. farmfamilies is always a concern to policy makers.Yet,policyconsiderationsoftenignorethesub-stantial involvement of most farm householdsin nonfarm labor markets. It has been shownthat,whentheentirefarmhouseholdisconsid-ered, the “average” U.S. farm household hasa higher total income and much greater assetholdings than is the case for nonfarm house-holds (see, e.g., Goodwin). Mishra et al. pre-sented data for 2000 suggesting that, when allfarms are considered, 92% of total householdincomecamefromnonfarmsources.Ofcourse,such figures depend on how one chooses to de-fineafarm.Whenoneconsiderslargeandverylarge commercial farms, the share of farm in-come in total household income ranges from50 to 75%.