According to the USDA, in 1993, 11% of all farms entered into production or marketing contracts, and those contracts resulted in 32% of US commodity production. This reflected nearly a doubling of such contract use by farms since the 1960s. One of the most noticeable trends in the development of marketing and production contracts is the change in the legal relationship between the producer and buyer. In many of the newer product contracts, title to a crop or livestock may begin with and remain with the non-producing party throughout the term of the contract. Critical to both marketing and production contracts are the provisions which deal with how the producer is compensated.