February 11, 2009

The USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey generates information on a broad range of farm economics. The data demonstrates the diversity within the farm sector, byfarm size, geographic region, household characteristics, andcommodities produced. Following are a few highlights from the report. More detailed information is available on its Web site at http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/ARMS/

 

• Production expenses: ARMS collects data on the costs offertilizer, fuel, rent, seed, labor, custom applications,pesticides, and other production inputs for selected crops.U.S. farm cash production expenses totalled $254 billion in2007, up 8.8% from 2006.

   

• Farm business values: Over 90% of reporting farmbusinesses in 2007 had healthy debt-to-asset ratios of lessthan 30%.

   

• Contracting: Marketing and production contracts (advanceagreements) between farmers and commodity buyersaccounted for 39% of the value of U.S. agricultureproduction in 2007.

   

• Farm household income sources: Farm households, likemany other households, draw livelihoods from a variety ofwork, savings, and investments. The relative importance ofthe different components of farm household income variesby farm type, but off-farm income is most important for amajority of farm households.

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Nebraska Field Office
USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service