On the other hand, a market garden or U-pick operation may yield a return over direct costs equal to 50 percent, or even 75 percent, of total market value of sales. There is no good answer to the question. There may be a lot of them, but they are not all that big, and even those with moderate acreage don't grow all that much. If we are concerned primarily with production, we may be able to pretty much write off small farms, or at least justify not accrediting them with much importance. Small farms account for just over 25 percent of total value of U.S. farm production, even though they accounted for over 75 percent of U.S. farms.
Small farms are more important in terms of land and farm assets.
Thus, small farms are more important in terms of land ownership and total value of assets, than in terms of value of production, but are still less important in land and assets than in terms of total farm numbers. From an overall financial stability position, small farms are about as financially secure as are large farms. The small farms have less farm income, which makes them vulnerable form a standpoint of financial liquidity or ability to meet cash flow requirements. However, small farms have only 43 percent of all farm debt while holding 53 percent of all assets, leaving them less vulnerable from the standpoint of financial solvency or risk of bankruptcy. Many might agree, but the typical response is that small farmers really don't depend on small farms, farms are just the places where they live, or they depend on off-farm jobs, or they are retired.