generally had larger farm equity (net farm worth) compared to similar non-participants. Even so,
the retired/residential/lifestyle/low-sales farms among participants had slightly higher net farm
incomes than did similar non-participant farms, while the net farm income for non-participating
higher-sales farms significantly exceeded that for similar participating farm types by nearly 84
percent.
For conservation program participants and non-participants, farm operators of higher-sales
farms were generally slightly younger than operators of other farm types. Operator age ranged from
52 - 54 years for higher-sales farms, to 55 - 64 years for retired/residential/lifestyle/low-sales
farming occupation farms. The distributional effects were slightly different for college education
and off-farm work. The percent of operators (for farms growing corn) with some college education
was highest for non-participant, higher-sales farms (at 21 percent), while only about 14 percent of
higher-sales farms among program participants had some college education. On the other hand,
retired/residential/lifestyle/low-sales farming occupation farms had the highest percent of operators
who worked off-farm, ranging from 37 to 71 percent, for participants and non-participants,
respectively. Higher-sales farms among program participants are least associated with operators
working off-farm.
For farms growing corn in the 4-State study area, higher-sales farms for both participants
and non-participants received the largest total government payments (ranging from $58,541 to
$71,752 per farm). However, these payments are heavily influenced by the average size of their
direct government (AMTA) and loan-deficiency (LDP) payments. Even so, in 2005, higher-sales
farming-occupation farms participating in conservation programs (on corn acres) received higher
government conservation payments ($6,299 per farm) than did other farms participating in
conservation programs (at $2,428 for participating retired/residential/lifestyle/low-sales farms).