Clientele of the Small Farm Program

 The current USDA definition of a small farm is as follows:

 -- Family net income from all sources (farm and nonfarm) is

 below the median nonmetropolitan income of the state,

 The family is dependent on farming for a significant, though

 not necessarily a majority, of its income, and

 -- Family members provide most of the labor and management.

 Using a corrbination of Census and data collected by ESCS, Carlin

and Crecink have developed the following matrix: 20/


 $20,000 gross sales


Well-being of
families with
farm businesses A B
 700,000 500,000
 High Income
 farms farms
 Median nonmetropolitan
 -inccme: $13,800 in 1977

 C D
 Low Income 1,000,000 300,000
 farms farms


 Small Large

 Size of farm business

 The 700,000 farms in cell "A" of the matrix sales less than

$20,000 but income above the median nonmetropolitan income are small

farms, but they do not have the income problem that makes assistance

so essential. While there are no doubt exceptions, one or both members


20/ Thomas A. Carlin and John Crecink, Small Farm Definition and Public
 Policy, presented at the AAEA annual meeting, Pullman, Washington,
 (July 30 August 1, 1979).