WASHINGTON — U.S. farm production expenditures totaled $307 billion in 2008, according to the Farm Production Expenditures 2008 Summary released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Total farm expenditures for 2008 rose 8.3 percent from the revised 2007 total of $284 billion — a slower increase than the prior year.
Largest dollar increases
The report shows the largest dollar increases per farm were: feed up $2,325; fertilizer, lime and soil conditioners up $2,208; tractors and self propelled machinery up $1,286 and rent up $1,252.
All other average increases were less than $1,200 per farm. To provide a more in-depth look at operations in the highest economic class by gross value of sales, the service divided the category of operations with $1 million or more in sales into two classes: farms with $1 million to $4,999,999 in gross sales and those with $5 million and over.
Average per farm production expenditures for operations in the $5 million and over class totaled $11.4 million, 6.4 times larger than those in the $1 million to $4,999,999 class.
Farms in this second to highest class averaged $1.8 million in production expenditures, followed by the $500,000 to $999,999 economic class averaging $0.7 million.
Revised
National Agricultural Statistics Service revised its 2007 farm production expenditures estimates based on data collected during the 2007 Census of Agriculture.
The revised 2007 farm production expenditures estimate increased $23.5 billion from the preliminary estimate to reflect current data on the number of farms in the U.S.
As reported in the Farms, Land in Farms, and Livestock Operations 2008 Summary, the number of farms in the U.S. in 2007 was 2,204,950, revised up from 2,075,510.
Greatest impact
The increase in the number of farms had the greatest impact on the following farm production expenditure categories: livestock and poultry ($6.3 billion), feed ($3.8 billion), labor ($2.6 billion) and farm services ($2.5 billion).
More information
For more information on U.S. farm production expenditures and income, visit the National Agricultural Statistics Service Web site at www.nass.usda.gov/QuickStats/indexbysubject.jsp?Pass_group=Economics or USDA’s Economic Research Service Web site at www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FarmIncome/2008incomeaccounts.htm.
