Structural Conservation Practices in U.S. Corn Production: Evidence on Environmental Stewardship by Program Participants and Non-Participants



Table 1. Average field/farm characteristics for 2005 corn producers, by conservation program

participation and by farm-size class.

Field/Farm

Characteristics

_______Non-Participant farms_______

_________Participant farms_________

Retired/Residential/-
Life-style + Farming-
Occupation/Low
Sales Farms
[Sales < $100,000]

Farming-
OccupationZ-
Higher Sales
Farms [Sales ≥
$100,000]

RetiredZResidentialZ-
Life-style + Farming-
OccupationZLow
Sales Farms
[Sales < $100,000]

Farming-
Occupation/-
Higher Sales
Farms [Sales
≥ $100,000]

General Field/Farm Values

Percent of farms (horizontal sum = 100)

42.5

43.7 cd c

4.2 в

9.6 в

Farm acres operated (ac.)

163 BD

1,019 AC

298 bd

1,263 AC

Farm corn acres harvested (ac.)

66 bd

480 AC

120 bd

515 ac

Percent of corn acres planted
(horizontal sum = 100)

10.3 B

72.6 ACD

1.8 bd

15.3 вс

Acres owned to acres operated (ratio)

.67 B

.37 AC

.92 bd

.46 C

Farm Financial Values

Farm total value of production ($)

72,336 B

423,979 AC

66,647 bd

354,582 AC

Ave. farm revenue share from corn (%)

29.0

38.0 c

50.0

41.0 C

Total farm net worth [equity] ($)

394,168 BD

1,208,947 a

856,921 bd

1,515,128 A

Ave. net farm income ($)

15,401 BD

161,853 AC

16,410 bd

88,070 AC

Operator Characteristics

Ave. operator age

55

52

64

54

Percent corn farm operators with
some college (column %)

Percent corn farms with primary operator
working off-farm (column %)

6.2 B

70.8

20.9 ad

17.4

X

36.6

13.6 в

8.6

Government Payments ($/farm)

Direct government (AMTA) payments

5,005 BD

21,479 AC

7,162 bd

29,970 AC

Counter-cyclical payments

3,519 BD

15,416 AC

4,226 bd

20,499 AC

Conservation payments a

4,858

3,207

2,428

6,299

Loan deficiency payments (LDP’s, etc.)

8,545 bd

25,565 AC

7,983 bd

27,613 AC

Total government payments:

15,314 BD

58,541 AC

20,523 bd

71,752 AC

Agri-Environmental Values

Ave. harvested corn yield (bu./ac.)

125

152

183

148

Ave. nitrogen applied per treatment acre (lbs./ac.)

105.2

132.6

122.2

138.0

USLE soil loss (tons/ac./yr.)
Percent corn farms with gully

4.2 D

3.5 cd

4.8 в

5.4 AB

erosion in corn fields (column %)
Percent corn farms with corn field

X

9.4

X

13.5

adjacent to a water body, intermittent
stream or wetland (column %)

16.3

27.8 D

X

44.1 в

Percent of corn acres [with HEL
acres in corn field] (column %)

Percent of corn acres [with wetlands

2.6 bd

1.6 AC

7.9 bd

14.0 AC

in the corn field] (column %)__________________

_________0.0_____________

_____X

________0.0_____________

______X

Source: 2005 CEAP-ARMS Corn Survey (integrated Phase II & III data), Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
a/ Conservation payments here, for non-participants and participants, include government payments for all conservation activities,

including land retirement from such programs as the CRP and WRP, and for conservation activities for the entire farm that are not
included in our definition of participant (which is based on Phase II-based program participation information).

b/ X indicates that there were insufficient observations for these estimates.

c/ Letters A,B,C, and D indicate significant column difference tests based on pairwise two-tailed [Ho: β12] delete-a-group Jackknife
t-statistics at a 90 percent confidence level or higher with 15 replicates and 28 degrees of freedom. A=column 1, B=column 2, etc.

27



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