| What are the 5 largest expense categories, when running a small family farm?

What are the 5 largest expense categories, when running a small family farm?

Deep in Thought asked:


here are some choices: fuel, electricity, water, seed, labor costs, maitenance of equipment, top soil, purchase of equipment, etc.

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Comments

3 Responses to “What are the 5 largest expense categories, when running a small family farm?”

  1. bikinkawboy on April 2nd, 2009 5:56 am

    Land purchase, interest or land rental, initial monetary outlay for livestock, machinery or structures, inputs such as feed for livestock or seed and fertilizer for crops, hired labor if needed for the operation, opportunity cost on monetary investments, i.e. you pay $50,000 cash for a tractor, how much interest income could that money have made had you invested it in the stock market, cd, interest, etc.

  2. big John T on April 2nd, 2009 8:43 pm

    small or large doesnt matter land or land rent is number one even if the land is paid for if someone will pay $200 an acre to rent your land you have to count that as if you were paying rent for example if you cleared $210 per acre from crops you raised and could have rented the land to someone else for $200 and done nothing except cash a check you actually only made $10 for your time crop inputs (fertilizer,seed, and chemicals) are number two equipment cost own or lease is number three labor is number four and fuel is number five electric doesnt amount to much water can be a major expense in some areas

  3. Nimbus on April 4th, 2009 1:32 am

    Fertiliser is usually the biggest single expense (on an owned farm). Labour is usually second. And from there it really depends on the type of farming operation, and whether you are talking about capital expenditure or operational costs.