The top 4 percent of farms account for 69 percent of U.S. farm sales, while the bottom 76 percent of farms make up a mere 3 percent of sales.
Mike Weaver Turned His Chicken Farm into a Hemp Farm
Mike Weaver was a contract farmer who raised chickens for Pilgrim’s Pride. He now uses his old chicken barns to grow hemp plants for CBD oil. The transition has set him on a better financial track and will enable him to employ more workers on his farm. You can buy Mike’s CBD products here.
“I hope this creates a whole lot of new jobs and new revenue for the farm. Farmers in America are in bad shape. … I’m trying to do my part to get that changed.”
—Mike Weaver
“Growing these hemp plants should be in the $2 million per year income range, and my net should be 40 to 50 percent. I think the best year I had with chickens was when I netted $7,000.”
—Mike Weaver
Forty-five percent of U.S. farmers have a negative net income. The median net poultry farm income was $13,140 in 2018, meaning half the poultry farmers in the country earned less than this amount.
Four percent of U.S. farms control 58 percent of farmland, while 13 percent of U.S. farms control 0.14 percent of farmland.
Fifty-five percent of poultry farms have debt, while 67.7 percent of dairy farms have debt.
Family farm Chapter 12 bankruptcies grew by almost 20 percent from 2018 to 2019. Ninety-five percent of dairy farms are family farms. There were 3,281 fewer dairy milk operations in 2019 than in 2018.