FARM OPERATIONS FACING DEVELOPMENT: RESULTS FROM THE CENSUS LONGITUDINAL FILE

This paper examines farms in areas undergoing development, using a longitudinal file constructed by linking several agricultural censuses. Individual farms are followed over the 1982-97 period. Survival, exit, and entrance rates are presented for three types of farms: recreational, adaptive, and traditional. The three types of farms are located where one would expect. Traditional farms are concentrated in nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) counties, while adaptive farms are concentrated in metro core counties. Recreational farms are least common in nonmetro nonadjacent areas, where off-farm opportunities are fewest. The concentration of adaptive farms in metro core counties does not appear to be the result of these farms simply surviving an urban environment better than traditional and recreational farms. In fact, adaptive farms have lower survival rates than traditional farms. Adaptive farms instead had a relatively high entrance rate.