nationally, these changes have been more pronounced in the Appalachian region.
Although the sizes of farms, farm incomes, and related characteristics are relatively small in
Appalachia, the agriculture of the region has followed trends similar to those elsewhere in the U.S.
Thus, farms have become more specialized and are now more commercially oriented; relatively less
of the farms and farm enterprises are devoted to production for home consumption although that
probably remains more important in Appalachia than for most of the U.S. Comparisons of 1997 and
1964 (and other censuses) Census of Agriculture data for areas of Appalachia and the U.S. indicate
that much smaller percentages of the farms in the region (and nation) have small pork, poultry, dairy
or orchard enterprises; those that continue with such activities tend to have larger enterprises than
in the past and a larger proportion of farms with those enterprises also sell products produced by
those enterprises. In 1964, for example, relatively large numbers of Appalachian farms had
inventories of hogs and pigs, chickens (especially layers), and dairy cows but did not report any sales
from those enterprises. Those farms that now report inventories of livestock have substantially
larger numbers and a high proportion report sales of the animals or their products. In addition, the
numbers of farms reporting grain production have declined significantly in the region, but those that
remain in production produce larger amounts, although less than national averages on a per farm
basis.
A smaller portion of Appalachian land in farms is cropland due largely to the hilly terrain that
typifies the region; much of the land is best suited to use as pastures and woodlands. Thus, the
region’s agriculture is more oriented toward livestock production with a much larger share of
region’s cash receipts from farm marketings derived from livestock sales than for the U.S. Dairy
cattle tend to dominate in northern part of the region, beef cattle in the center, and poultry in the
south although poultry production has increased in the central area as well, especially in Virginia and
West Virginia. Beef cattle and the sale of feeder calves is the predominant agricultural enterprise
in much of the region. Since the resource base for the region’s agriculture does not permit the
development of large scale mechanized operations, especially for grain and other crops, the region
will continue to depend on animal agriculture, with specialty crops, recreational enterprises, and
other tourist/service related activities growing in importance as sources of additional income.
Farmers in the region, especially those with smaller sizes of operations, depend increasingly
on off-farm sources for an important portion of their incomes, often for most or all of the income
since the net incomes of small sized operations tend to be negative when all of the costs are taken
into account-these may, however, provide a low-cost residence as well as lower cost food from
consumption of farm raised products and amenities from country living. For the U.S. as well as
Appalachia, incomes from nonfarm sources tend to exceed those from farming in all farm size
groups except for large size farms, those with a value farm production of over $100,000 per farm.
While limited resource farms that are typical in many areas of the Appalachian Region earn most of
their incomes from nonfarm sources, their total earnings are substantially less than those of larger
farms which tend to have incomes equal to or greater than those of the average incomes for the
nonfarm population. Operators from limited resource farms often earn far less than operators from
larger farms who work off the farm for at least two reasons. One they are often in areas where
employment opportunities are relatively limited which is typical of more isolated and more rural
areas such as exist in much of the Appalachian region. The other is that more of the operators of
limited resource farms also have limitations from the standpoint of their human capital endowments,
i.e., their education, training and experience tend to be more limited than is true for many of the