Agricultural Resource Management Survey - Brochure

Because Better Data =

Better Decisions

Last year, more than 20,000 of your fellow
farmers and ranchers completed the survey.
Your participation in ARMS ensures that policy
makers and others, including farmers and
ranchers like you, base decisions on facts that
come straight from the source.
The 2017 ARMS will be conducted in three
phases. Growers will be surveyed during the
following data collection periods:
ARMS I: Survey screening

May - July 2017
ARMS II: Production practices and

costs survey

September – December 2017
ARMS III: Costs and returns survey

January - April 2018

For more information, visit us at:
www.nass.usda.gov/go/ARMS

The results of this survey will be available in
aggregate form only, ensuring that no individual
operation or producer can be identified, as required
by federal law.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
September 2017

United States Department of Agriculture
National Agricultural Statistics Service

Agricultural Resource
Management Survey
(ARMS)

The Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
primary source of information on the production practices, resource use, and economic
well-being of America’s farms and ranches. The results of this survey give farmers, ranchers,
and many others factual insights into many aspects of farming, ranching, and conditions in
agricultural communities.

Farmers and ranchers rely on good information to make decisions every day. Good data
are also critical for federal farm policy decision making. That’s why the information
provided by farmers and ranchers in ARMS is so important.
ARMS tells the story of American agriculture to a public that has less and less direct contact with
the farm community. Through ARMS, American farmers and ranchers tell us that they:
■ Are family farmers:
Ninety-nine percent of
all farms are owned and
operated by families,
and 89 percent of the
value of farm production
originates on such
farms.
■ Are conservationists:
Forty percent of
combined acreage
planted to corn,
cotton, soybeans, and
wheat were in no-till
or strip-till systems
aimed at improving
soil health and limiting
nutrient run-off.
Hog producers have
steadily adjusted their
manure management
practices to become
more environmentally
friendly.

■ Face significant
year-to-year financial
risks: The typical annual
change (up or down)
in a farmer’s household
income amounts to
$20,000, eight times
that of a non-farm
household.
■ Support local
markets: Local sales of
fruits and vegetables
by produce farmers
amounted to nearly
$6 billion in 2014.

■ Readily adopt new technologies: Automated
guidance systems for farm equipment, which
ease fatigue and pinpoint precise field locations,
have been adopted on half of planted acres
for major crops. Over three-quarters of milk
production now comes from farms using
automatic milking units, reducing the incidence
of mastitis in cows.
Small family farms accounted for 90 percent of all U.S. farms and
24 percent of the value of agricultural production in 2015.
90

Farms

Acres
Operated

48

Value of
Production

23

24
0

10
Small

6 31

23
20

30

23

6

42
40

Midsize

50

Percent
Large-scale

60

70

11
80

90

Nonfamily Farms

Family Farms

Note: Farms are categorized by their annual gross cash farm income (GCFI): under $350,000
(small), between $350,000 and $999,999 (midsize), and at least $1 million (large-scale).
Nonfamily farms are those where neither the principal operator nor individuals related to the
operator own a majority of the business.
Source: USDA, Economic Research Service and National Agricultural Statistics Service,
2015 Agricultural Resource Management Survey.

100