Ohio Farm Household Income and Financial Condition

Ohio Farm Household Income and Financial ConditionThe Ohio Farm Household Longitudinal Study has been gathering production, financial, and household data from Ohio farm households since 1986.In early spring of 1991, approximately 1000 farm operators were .surveyed by telephone regarding their 1990 farming experience.This report and others to follow summarize the 1991 information and compare tt with information gathered for the previous years.The sample of farm households was randomly chosen from operating farms to fully depict the 70,000-80,000 farm operator households in Ohio.Landlords and retired farmers who own land but were not currently operating farms were not included in the survey.This report examines farm household Income and the sources of this income.In general, the findings reported that (a) for the •average" farm household, 1990 net farm Income remained constant with 1988 net farm income; (b) off-farm income decreased slightly from the 19881evel, but continued to be the primary source of income for the average farm operator household; and (c) for households operating "commercial" farms, which produce over two-thirds of Ohio farm products, the farm business generated most of the household income and earned a 7.4 percent rate of return for the capital invested in the business (Table