Which Farm Business Type Holds the Most Land?

With over 82 percent of the farms, it was no surprise to find that family or individually owned farms held the largest amount of land in 2002 (Figure 8.3). These farms operated 351,800 acres of the total 518,570 acres in Massachusetts, or 67.8 percent. Corporate farms, which represented about 9 percent of the farms, controlled nearly 69,000 acres or 15.2 percent of Massachusetts's farmland. Partnerships held 63,415 acres or 12.2 percent of the Commonwealth's farmland. Other types of business organization held the remaining 24,467 acres of Massachusetts's farmland (4.7 percent).

These data suggest differing farm sizes across the different business types. Individual and family run farms operated about 70 acres per farm, on average. Average farm sizes for partnerships and corporate farms were 169 acres and 141 acres, respectively. The largest farms, on average were those in the "other" business organization category at 204 acres per farm. Looking closer at the distribution of total Massachusetts farmland across farm business types (Figure 8.4), we can see that most farms operate fewer than 50 acres, regardless of the type of business organization. A majority of family and individually run farms, 63 percent, operated fewer than 50 acres of farmland, while about 39 percent of partnerships operated fewer than 50 acres. Only about 22 percent of the family and individually owned farms operated 100 acres or more. Over 40 percent of both partnerships (44.4 percent) and "other" business organization types (42.5 percent) operated 100 acres or more.