Off-Farm Work of Farm Families: Some Empirical Results and Policy Implications

The welfare of farm families, even those with large farms, is not determined solely by their incomes from the farms they operate (USDA 1976, p. 62). The share of personal income of the farm population from nonfarm sources has steadily increased from 27 percent in 1950 and 35 percent in 1960 to so+ percent in the 1970\u27s, except for 1973-74 when net farm income rose so dramatically.I Moreover, approximately 70 percent of the income 2 from nonfarm sources is wage and salary income. Thus a large and growing share of the income of farm families is not from farming