Soil Management and the Farm Typology: Do Small Family Farms Manage Soil and Nutrient Resources Differently than Large Family Farms?

Abstract

There is increasing recognition that farmers face constraints on their farming decisions depending on the their resources, stage in life, and lifestyle choices. These factors are captured in a new farm typology developed by the Economic Research Service. The farm typology's definition of small and large farms is used to test the commonly stated hypothesis that small farmers practice better land husbandry than do large farmers. The adoption of eleven different soil and nutrient management practices used by U.S. corn producers is analyzed with a bivariate logit model for each practice. The farm typology is found to be significantly associated with two of the practices—rotation with legumes and conservation tillage.