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Factor Demand

The amount of an input demanded by a firm, given the price of the input and the quantity of output being produced; an input will be demanded up to the point where the value of the input's marginal product equals the price of the input.

Fair

Less than 4/10 opaque cloud cover, no precipitation, and no extremes in temperature, visibility or winds.

Family farm

As defined by USDA regulations, a farm that (1) produces agricultural commodities for sale in such quantities so as to be recognized in the community as a farm and not a rural residence; (2) produces enough income (including off-farm employment) to pay family and farm operating expenses, pay debts, and maintain the property; (3) is managed by the operator; (4) has a substantial amount of labor provided by the operator and the operator’s family; and (5) may use seasonal labor during peak periods and a reasonable amount of full-time hired labor.

Farm

As defined for purposes of the Census of Agriculture since 1978, a farm is any place that has, or has the potential to produce, $1,000 or more in annual gross sales of farm products. According to the 1992 Census of Agriculture, there are about 1.925 million farms in the United States. This number includes all farm sizes and ownership structures, including corporate farms, partnerships, and family farms.

Farm bill

A phrase that refers to a multi-year, multi-commodity federal support law. It usually amends some and suspends many provisions of permanent law, reauthorizes, amends, or repeals provisions of preceding temporary agricultural acts, and puts forth new policy provisions for a limited time into the future. Beginning in 1973, farm bills have included titles on commodity programs, trade, rural development, farm credit, conservation, agricultural research, food and nutrition programs, marketing, etc. These are referred to as omnibus farm bills.

Farm Credit System (FCS)

A network of cooperatively owned lending institutions and related service organizations serving all 50 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The FCS specializes in providing farm real estate and rural homeowner loans, operating credit, and related services to farmers, ranchers, and producers or harvesters of aquatic products. The FCS may also finance the processing and marketing activities of these borrowers, certain farm-related businesses, and agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives. It is chartered under authorities in the Farm Credit Act of 1971, as amended, but does not receive any direct government funding. The System provides about one-fourth of the total credit used by U.S. farmers, ranchers, and cooperatives.

Farmed wetlands

Under the swampbuster program, these are wetlands that were partially drained or altered to improve crop production before swampbuster was enacted as part of the December 23, 1985, farm law. Farmed wetlands may be farmed as they were before the 1985 date, and the drainage that was in place before that date can be maintained, but no additional drainage is allowed.

Farmland protection

Programs, operated mostly at state and local levels by government agencies or private entities such as land trusts, that are designed to limit conversion of agricultural land to other uses that otherwise might have been more financially attractive to the landowner. Every state has at least one such program; the most popular programs are tax relief through preferential or differential assessment, and right-to-farm laws. Easements are used in some states.

Farrow-to-finish

Typically, a confinement operation where pigs are bred and raised to their slaughter weight, usually 200-250 pounds. Facilities that have 2,500 or more swine are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) subject to point source pollution permit requirements.

Fault

A fracture or zone of fractures in rocks of mappable size along which there has been displacement of one side relative to the other.

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