CHOICES
A publication of AAEA
In the United States, farm succession plans are important to ensure continuation of the farm business as they provide clear guidance to the next generation of farmers and offer planned instruction on how to split the farm (if necessary) (Lippsmeyer et al., 2023). However, the process is simple for some farm operations (say, leaving a spouse in charge) but for others it might be more complicated and involves several factors. Some of those factors include (1) proper transfer of ownership of all aspects of the farm (land, equipment, etc.), (2) transfer of asset control depending on the organizational structure of the farm, and (3) consideration of the transfer to on-farm and off-farm heirs (Ferrell et al., 2013). In addition to these factors, other considerations must be made regarding farm policies and tax provisions.Studies indicate that having farm succession plans positively impacts institutional knowledge transfer and farm finances. Succession plans also allow the current operator to work alongside new operators, facilitating the transfer of knowledge and management strategies (Hicks et al., 2012; Lippsmeyer et al., 2023). Mishra and El-Osta (2007) found that farm succession planning had positive effects on farm financial performance.
Previous studies have examined farm succession plans—or lack thereof—from different perspectives. Kaplan et al. (2009) found that unwillingness to engage in difficult conversations, complications in personal lives, and inability to identify a competent heir were primary reasons producers did not have a succession plan. Lippsmeyer et al. (2023) found that farms employing better management practices, using financial metrics for decision-making, and operated by more highly educated individuals were more likely to have succession plans.
There are several reasons, as outlined above, to better understand which farms have estate and succession plans and how that has changed over time. We use extensive data from the 2017 and 2022 Censuses ofAgriculture to examine and analyze the farms engagedin estate and succession planning across varying economic classification, legal structure, farm size, and production specialization. The Census of Agriculture is a comprehensive count of US farms and ranches and the people who operate them. All farms and operators who generated, or normally would have generated, $1,000 or more in agricultural products during the census year are included (USDA-NASS, 2024). Following Giri and Subedi (2025a, 2025b) and Combs et al. (2025), who also use census data in their analyses, we use descriptive analysis using charts to report our findings.
The Census of Agriculture asks questions related to farm estate planning and succession planning in Section 8. The specific question asked is to state if person(s) was(were) involved in estate planning or succession planning (USDA-NASS, 2024). Therefore, our analysis and results represent farms where at least one operator was engaged in estate or succession planning. We note here that engagement in estate or succession planning may be distinct from actually having a succession plan in place.We also use the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)—the US Department of Agriculture’s primary source of information on the production practices, resource use, and economic well-being of America’s farms and ranches—to supplement the census data and for statistical hypothesis testing.
The 2022 Census indicates that the total number of persons living in producers’ households declined to 6.4 million from 6.6 million in 2017. Of those, nearly 2.9 million in 2022 and almost 3 million in 2017 were involved in the day-to-day decision-making of farm operations. However, only slightly more than a quarter of all household members (28% in 2022 and 29% in 2017) were involved in estate or succession planning in either year as part of their day-to-day decision-making. Almost three-quarters (73% in 2022 and 76% in 2017) of those involved in daily decision-making were also engaged in estate or farm succession planning.
The Census of Agriculture breaks down the number of farms by size—classified based on farm acreage. Figure 2 shows the decline in the number and share of farms in each size class across the two census years. Two key findings emerge from Figure 2: (1) All farm size categories saw a decrease in 2022 compared to 2017; and (2) the rate of decline was heterogeneous across farms of different sizes (based on acres). Overall, the number of farms fell to 1.9 million in 2022 from 2 million in 2017—a 7% decrease. Additionally, total land in farms decreased from over 900 million acres in 2017 to slightly over 880 million acres.
The greatest decrease in both the number and share of farms occurred among the smallest farms. There were 38,733 fewer farms operating on less than 10 acres in 2022 compared to 2017, equivalent to a 14% drop. Other farm size categories with double-digit declines included farms operating on 500–999 acres (10% decrease) and those operating 1,000–1,999 acres (13% decrease).
Furthermore, over two-thirds (70%) of all farms were operated by producers in less than 80 acres. In fact,almost one-third (30%) of all farms were operated on 10–50 acres. Only 8% of all farms were operated on 1,000 acres or more.
Figure 3 shows the share of farms across different sizes that engaged in estate or succession planning in 2022 and 2017. There are two key takeaways from Figure 3: (1) across all farm sizes, the share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning decreased in 2022 compared to 2017; and (2) in both years, as farm size (in acres) increased, so did the share of farm operations engaged in estate or succession planning.
Overall, 61% of all farms engaged in estate or succession planning in 2022—a decrease of 4% from 65% in 2017. Nearly three-fourths of farms with 500 acres or more had such plans in both years: 73% in 2017 and 72% in 2022, making this class the least affected by the decline. Almost two-thirds of farms with 180–499 acres engaged in estate or succession planning in 2022 (66%) and 2017 (69%). Among other farm classes, about half of the farms within each class engaged in estate or succession planning in both census years. Finally, farms with 10–49 acres saw the largest decline in the share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning, dropping from 61% in 2017 to 56% in 2022.
The size of a farm is (generally) highly correlated with the value of sales the farm generates. However, the Census of Agriculture is comprehensive and provides a breakdown of the number of farms and those engaged in estate or succession planning based on their value of sales as well. Therefore, we analyzed the decrease in the number of farms from 2017 to 2022, and the share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning across the two census years differentiated by value of sales, as in the previous section (Figures 2 and 3). Figure 4 shows the change in the number and share of farms in each economic class across the two census years. Figure 4a shows that not all farm size classes saw a decrease in the number of farms; the number of farms in the largest economic class actually increased. Among the classes that experienced a decrease, the magnitude of decrease was larger among smaller farms. The largest drop in the number and share of farms occurred among the smallest farms. In 2022, there were 112,831 fewer farms with a value of sales less than $2,500 compared to 2017, representing a 14% decrease. Another farm class that experienced a double-digit decline was farms with a value of sales between $2,500 and $4,999, which saw a 10% decrease. In contrast, the largest farms—those with a value of sales of half a million dollars or more—increased in number in 2022 compared with 2017. There were 26,457 more farms in 2022 with sales values of half a million or more, an 18% increase compared to 2017.
While the census data do not indicate the reasons for this increase, two plausible explanations are that (1) some farms that were in a lower class in 2017 may have grown and increased their value of sales; and (2) new, larger farms may have come into operation, benefiting from economies of scale that made them profitable. The 2024 America’s Farmers and Ranchers at a Glance, an annual publication from the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS), shows that a lower share (10%–11%) of large farms had negative farm income, while a higher share of smaller farms reported negative farm income (Lim et al., 2024).
We find that over one-third (36%) of all farms had sales less than $2,500. In fact, over half (55%) of all farms had sales of less than $10,000. There were 9% of farms with sales of half a million or more, and 11% of all farms had sales of $100,000 or more but less than half a million dollars.
Figure 5 shows that the share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning decreased across all economic classes between 2017 and 2022. The economic classification in Figure 5 differs from those in Figure 4. Because the census data do not provide the same farm classifications for farms engaged in estate or succession planning as it does in Figure 4, we merged the number of farms from the data used in Figure 4 to align with the classifications that included counts of farms engaged in estate or succession planning. This allowed us to calculate the share of farms in each economic class. The decrease ranged from 6% to 3%, with the smallest decline (3%) among farms with a value of sales of $50,000 or more. The largest decrease (6%) occurred among farms with a value of sales between $5,000 and $9,999 and between $10,000 and $24,999. As the economic class increased, so did the share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning. In 2022, over 70% of farms with a value of sales of $50,000 or more had engaged in estate or succession planning. By contrast, fewer than half (48%) of farms with a value of sales under $2,500 had engaged in such planning.
The Census of Agriculture provides data on the number of farms specializing in certain commodities or types of production as well as the number of those farms engaged in estate or succession planning. Figure 6 presents the major production specializations of farms and the share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning among those specializations in 2022. In 2022, more than half of all farms specializing in the production categories listed in Figure 6 had engaged in estate or succession planning. Over two-thirds (71%) of farms involved in dairy cattle and milk production had engaged in estate or succession planning. Sixty percent or more of farms involved in oilseed and grain farming, fruit and tree nut farming, beef cattle ranching and farming, hog and pig farming, and aquaculture and other animal production also had engaged in estate or succession planning. The lowest share—55%—was among greenhouse, nursery, and floriculture farms. For all farm types, there was a decrease in share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning in 2022 compared to 2017. The decrease was from 1% (for farms producing vegetables and melons) to 7% (for poultry and egg producing farms).
In 2022, over a quarter (28%) of all farms engaged in estate or succession planning were beef cattle farms and 17% of all farms were engaged in oilseed and grain farming. Ten percent of farms were engaged in aquaculture and other animal production, while 5% of farms were engaged in fruit and tree nut farming. Farms engaged in other production were less than 5% of total farms. More specifically, 4% of all farms were engaged in sheep and goat farming, and another 4% of all farms were engaged in poultry and egg production. Three percent of farms were engaged in greenhouse, nursery, and floriculture production and 2% were engaged in vegetable and melon farming. Finally, 1% of all farms were engaged in dairy cattle and milk production, and another 1% of all farms hog and pig production.
Farms incorporate and operate under different legal structures for various reasons, including taxation and succession planning. Census data categorizes farms into four types of legal structures: (1) family or individual, (2) partnership, (3) corporation, and (4) other, including estate or trust, prison farm, grazing association, or American Indian reservation.
Figure 7 shows that the share of farms engaged in estate or succession plans in each legal structure decreased in 2022 compared to 2017. In 2022, 60% or more of farms in each legal structure had engaged in estate or succession planning. The largest decrease—4%—occurred among family or individual farms. The smallest decrease—2%—was observed among farms incorporated as corporations and those classified as other (estate or trust, prison farm, grazing association, or American Indian reservation).
We also found that 85% of all farms were either individual or family owned and structured as a sole proprietorship in 2022. The other 7% were partnership and same share 7% of all farms were registered as corporations. The remaining 2% of farms were registered as other.
Farm succession plans are important in the United States for several reasons, including continuity of the farm, providing clear guidance to estate’s legal representatives such as trustees and heirs so as to prevent disputes, tax purposes, and offering proper direction on how to split the farm if necessary The Census of Agriculture collects farm operator responses on estate and succession planning, providing detailed data across multiple indicators that reflect farmers’ reported practices. We analyze data from the most recent 2022 Census of Agriculture and compare it with the 2017 Census to gain insights into which farms engaged in estate or succession planning and how these have changed across the two censuses.
Overall, 61% of all farms had engaged in estate or succession planning in 2022—down 4 percentage points from 65% in 2017. Regardless of how farm size was measured (by acres or value of sales), the share of farms engaged in estate or succession plans declinedacross all size categories in 2022 compared to 2017. However, despite the overall decline, the share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning increased as farm size grew. In 2022, more than 70% of farms with a value of sales of $50,000 or more had engaged in estate or succession planning, while less than half (48%) of farms with a value of sales under $2,500 had engaged in such planning. Among farms specializing in specific types of commodity production, the highest share of farms engaged in estate or succession planning (71%) were those engaged in dairy cattle and milk production. Sixty percent or more of farms involved in oilseed and grain farming, fruit and tree nut farming, beef cattle ranching and farming, hog and pig farming, and aquaculture and other animal production also had engaged in estate or succession planning. Finally, despite the decline across all legal structures, two-thirds of farms incorporated as corporations had engaged in estate or succession planning in 2022.
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