August 15, 2016

US farmers spent less on production in 2015

US farmers spent less on agricultural production last year than in 2014, reversing a long-term trend of growing costs, the US Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) said. 

NASS said in its Farm Production Expenditures report that $362.8 billion was the total expenditure of US farmers in 2015, down 8.8% from the previous year's $397.6 billion.  

Feed and farm services, the two largest expenditure categories in 2014, both declined 8.2% in 2015. Producers spent $58.5 billion on animal feed, and $41.6 billion on farm services in 2015, NASS said.

Only two expenditure categories increased last year. These were the livestock, poultry and related expenses, on which the producers spent $45.4 billion, or an increase of 0.7% from 2014; and the miscellaneous capital expenditure, which hit $700 million, up 16.7%.

The average expenditure per farm was $176,181 in 2015, down 8% from $191,500 in 2014, the NASS report said. Last year, the average US farm spent $28,408 on feed, $22,047 on livestock, poultry and related expenses, $20,202 on farm services, and $15,443 on labor, it added.

The Midwest region spent the most on agricultural production in 2015 at $113.1 billion, at the same time registering the largest decrease (by $11.0 billion compared with 2014) in agricultural production expenditures.

The next-biggest expenditure was recorded by the Plains at $93.5 billion, followed by the West at $74.9 billion, the Atlantic at $44.2 billion and the South at $37.1 billion.