U.S. dairy production is consolidating into fewer but larger farms. This report uses data from several USDA surveys to detail that consolidation and to analyze the financial drivers of consolidation. Specifically, larger farms realize lower production costs. Although small dairy farms realize...

National average statistics related to farm production mask the diversity in the Nation's 2 million farms and the people who operate them. Farms in the United States differ not only by size (sales and acres) and type of production, but also by organizational characteristics (land ownership,...

The gross soybean processing margin (the gross return per bushel of soybeans processed) is the main decision variable that processors use in deciding when and if to make binding commitments to process soybeans on future dates. Understanding how processors choose processing margins for future...

This report is a primer on the use of debt by U.S. farm businesses for policymakers, researchers, and others interested in the financial well-being of U.S. agriculture. It presents data on basic debt-use patterns by farm businesses (in 2011, over 900,000 farms operated as farm businesses based...

When earnings decline in the face of rising production costs, farmers may find leasing and renting more attractive than owning their equipment. This-study provides information to cooperative machinery dealers and production credit associations on the benefits, drawbacks, and potential of leasing...

This bulletin furnishes farm sector financial ratio estimates developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. These estimates incorporate numerous revisions in estimating procedures and changes in available data. Nationaland State-level estimates of liquidity,...