These reports examine how production costs vary among producers of different commodities. These reports include details on production practices and input use levels (i.e., the 'technology set'), as well as farm operator and structural characteristics that underlie the cost and return estimates. The ...

The U.S. dairy industry underwent dramatic restructuring during the last 50 or so years. Key structural features of the dairy industry are the quantity of milk produced and the location, number, size, and organization of dairy farms. The questions of where, how much, and by whom milk is produced are...

The average cost of producing a hundred pounds (cwt) of rice was $6.00 for U.S. producers surveyed in 2000, ranging from about $2 per cwt to more than $10. Producers in the lowest quartile of production costs averaged $3.99 per cwt compared with $8.94 for producers in the highest quartile. Regional ...

Total costs of producing milk in 2000 ranged from an average of $11.58 per hundredweight (cwt) of milk sold in the Fruitful Rim-West region to $18.23 per cwt in the Eastern Uplands. Milk producers in the West had a significant cost advantage over producers in other regions in 2000 because their oper...

The average cost of producing a bushel of wheat was $3.97 for producers surveyed in 1998, ranging from about $1.25 to more than $6 per bushel. The cost of producing wheat generally declined as farm size increased. Regional differences in production practices and growing conditions were major influen...

Average soybean production costs ranged from $2.13 per bushel for producers in the lowest cost quartile to $6.00 per bushel for those in the highest cost quartile. Heartland, West, and Northern Crescent producers had lower soybean production costs per bushel than Mississippi Portal and Southeast pro...

Differences in regional conditions were the chief influence on variations in cow-calf production costs across the United States. Cow-calf operators in the West and Southern Plains have significant cost advantages over operators in other regions because, with a longer grazing season, their herds requ...

Producing a pound of cotton cost U.S. farmers 38 cents in operating costs and another 35 cents in overhead costs in 1997, the latest survey year. Individual farm costs ranged from 18 cents to $1.97 per pound for operating costs and from 28 cents to $2.96 per pound for total costs. The Prairie Gatewa...

This report provides land use estimates for major land uses in the United States, by State for 1997.

The production costs for a bushel of corn ranged from an average of $1.19 per bushel for those farmers in the lowest quartile to $3.67 per bushel for corn farmers in the highest quartile, ranked by production costs per bushel. Producers with high corn production costs per bushel tended to have both ...

This report presents information on nutrient and pest management practices, crop residue management, and other general crop management practices in use on U.S. farms. The public has expressed concerns about the possible undesirable effects of contemporary agricultural practices on human health and n...

This annual bestseller presents historical data on food consumption, prices, and expenditures by commodity and commodity group, supply and use, prices, total expenditures, and U.S. income and population. Includes 29 charts dealing with food consumption trends, from changes in per capita consumption,...

U.S. cotton marketing patterns have been changing. The recent changes include cost-cutting transportation arrangements and innovative merchandising techniques. These trends are described in this report.

Conservation tillage was used on more than 99 million acres in 1994, about 35 percent of U.S. planted crop area. Five years earlier, the total conservation-tilled acreage was 72 million. Besides conserving soil, crop residue management practices also cut production costs on many farms, according to ...

This report is fifth in an ERS series summarizing CRP participation. Finds that more than 36 million acres were enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in signup periods 1-12, held during 1986-92. This acreage includes over 23 million commodity program base acres and nearly 2.5 million tr...