Rural-residence farms were defined to be farms with total agricultural sales below $250,000 and the principal occupation of the operator was not farming or ranching.

Intermediate farms were defined to be farms operated by individuals, families, or partnerships with total agricultural sales below $250,000 and the principal occupation of the operator was farming or ranching.

This farm type thus includes all incorporations, estates and trusts, prison farms, grazing associations, Indian reservations, and other nonfamily enterprises.

Commercial farms were defined to be all farms with total agricultural sales (crops and livestock) above $250,000 and farms with less than $250,000 in total agricultural sales if farming or ranching was reported as the principal occupation of the operator and the type of farm organization was other than an individual, family, or partnership.

These farms with livestock also were categorized into three farm types by adapting the Economic Research Service's farm typology to information available in the Census database:

Farms with confined livestock types were defined to be farms with 4 or more animal units of any combination of fattened cattle, milk cows, swine, chickens or turkeys.

Farms with pastured livestock types and few other livestock were defined to be farms with: 1) less than 4 animal units of any combination of fattened cattle, milk cows, swine, chickens and turkeys, 2) 8 or more animal units of cattle other than milk cows and fattened cattle, 3) 10 or more horses, ponies, mules, burros, or donkeys, or 4) 25 or more sheep, lambs, or goats.

Farms with specialty livestock types were defined to be farms with $5,000 or more in sales of livestock products from fish, bees, rabbits, mink, poultry other than chickens and turkeys, and exotic livestock, and generally had few other livestock types on the farm.

These farms would generally be expected to be raising livestock for home consumption or for sale to neighbors or at small local markets.

Farms with few livestock were defined to be farms with less than: 1) 4 animal units of any combination of fattened cattle, milk cows, swine, chickens and turkeys, 2) 8 animal units of cattle other than fattened cattle or milk cows, 3) 10 horses, ponies, mules, burros, or donkeys, 4) 25 sheep, lambs, or goats, and 5) $5,000 in sales of specialty livestock products.

Some farms specialize in a single livestock type, especially the larger farms, but many farms have several livestock types.ДЇarms with livestock were categorized into four mutually exclusive groups on the basis of the number and kind of livestock reported in the 1997 Census of Agriculture: The majority of farms with livestock are small relative to livestock production, but some farms are quite large, generating sales of livestock products in excess of a million dollars annually. A few farms raise specialty livestock types such as ducks, geese, fur-bearing animals, fish, honeybees, and exotic livestock. Many of the farms with livestock also raise crops, but others specialize in livestock production and have few acres associated with the farm. Others are predominantly confined operations with livestock types such as fattened cattle, milk cows, swine, chickens, or turkeys. Some are predominately pasture-based operations with livestock types such as beef cows, horses, sheep, and goats. Some raise few livestock, primarily for home consumption.

Farms with livestock vary widely in the number and kind of livestock on the farm.

Over two-thirds of these farms-1,315,051 farms (69 percent-reported livestock inventory or livestock sales. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Census of Agriculture reported that there were 1,911,859 farms in the United States in 1997.

Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA Profile of Farms with Livestock in the United States: A Statistical Summary

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