The USDA also attempts to track the percentage of farms that purchase agricultural inputs and conduct marketing activities over the Internet. Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, veterinarian supplies, feed, machinery, replacement parts, supplies, and office equipment are just a few of the items that the USDA considers as inputs. Marketing activities are defined to include the direct sale of commodities, on-line crop and livestock auctions, on-line market advisory services, and commodity price tracking among others.

Use of the Internet to purchase inputs has steadily risen since the USDA began to collect these data. The number of farms that purchased some of their inputs on-line increased from 3 percent to 9 percent between 2001 and 2005. Likewise, 9 percent of farms conducted on-line marketing activities in 2005, up from 6 percent in 2001. Once again, a greater percentage of those farms with sales of $250,000 or more used the Internet for these functions. This does not mean, however, that small farms are at a disadvantage when it comes to using the Internet for business management. To a large extent, Internet use is scale-neutral, meaning that small and large farms can both use the Internet to leverage resources, diversify their sales and marketing, and as a public relations tool. These trends in computer and Internet usage demonstrate that there is great opportunity for continued growth in the number of farmers/producers using these technologies.