Farm typology
The USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) has developed a farm typology, or farm classification, that divides the 2.1 million U.S. farms into 8 mutually exclusive and relatively homogeneous groups: limited resource farms retirement farms residential/lifestyle farms farming occupation/lower sales farming occupation/high sales large family farms very large family farms nonfamily farms. Also, the eight categories can be collapsed into 3: rural residence farms intermediate farms commercial farms Data for 2003 indicate that Commercial farms, those having sales of $250,000 or more annually, constitute 9% of all farms and account for 72% of production.