USDA Economic Research Service Briefing Room
" "  
" "

 
Briefing Rooms

Print this page Print | E-mail this page E-mail | Bookmark & ShareBookmark/share | Translate Translate | Text only Text only | resize text smallresize text mediumresize text large

Farm Income and Costs: Recommended Data

Contents
 

Farm Income provides farm income forecasts, updated regularly, and farm income estimates, released once a year. Forecasts are developed using an economic accounting model that generates forecasts of value-added and farm income, plus component accounts of cash receipts and production expenditures, for the national farm sector. Estimates are derived from survey data gathered by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service and other national institutions over the course of the year.

Farm Balance Sheet accounts include assets, debt, and equity, where equity equals assets minus debt, and are used to assess wealth in the farm sector. Both operators' and landlords' shares of the assets and debt for the farming operation are included. The financial ratios presented provide useful indicators of the farm sector's financial performance.

Commodity Costs and Returns have been estimated for major field crop and livestock enterprises each year since 1975. Cost and return estimates are reported for the United States and major production regions for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, peanuts, oats, barley, sugar beets, tobacco, milk, hogs, and cow-calf. These cost and return accounts are "historical" accounts based on the actual costs incurred by producers during each year.

Farm Business and Household Survey Data: Customized Data Summaries from ARMS—Get tailored reporting on agricultural production technology, farm business viability, and the structure of U.S. agriculture from the very latest information gleaned from ARMS-including, for the first time, data for 15 selected States as well as the nation as a whole.

Historic Data on Farm Operator Household Income—Operator household income data prior to 1996, including a time series back to 1960.

See all recommended data...

 

For more information, contact: Roger Strickland

Web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov

Updated date: April 29, 2009