Some 14 pct of U.S. farms are 10 acres of smaller and most do produce little, says a USDA report adding, “Small acreage does not necessarily mean small sales.” About 50,000 of the farms had sales above $10,000 a year; 6,000 grossed over $250,000 and 3,600 had sales of at least $500,000. “These farms tended to specialize in a single stage of the production process when raising livestock, or they produced high- value crops. They produced very little or no field crops, which require large acreages.”
Says the Economic Research Service summary, “Product specializations varied with the size of the farm. The 3,600 farms in the largest SA (small acreage) sales class, at least $500,000 in sales in 2007, consisted primarily of confined hog and poultry operations. But the 46,000 farms with sales between $10,000 and $500,000 in 2007 focused primarily on high-value crops like floriculture, tree nurseries, orchards, and vegetables.”