Financial Characteristics of North Dakota Farms 2005-2014

The performance of over 500 North Dakota farms, 2005-2014, is summarized using 16 financial measures. Farms are categorized by geographic region, farm type, farm size, gross cash sales, farm tenure, net farm income, debt-to-asset, and age of farmer to analyze relationships between financial performance and farm characteristics. Five-year averages, 2009-2013, are also presented. In 2014, median and average acreage per farm was 1,847 and 2,478, respectively. Median and average cash farm revenue was $531,374 and $734,233, respectively. Over 70% of farms were crop farms and 54 percent of farms had gross sales exceeding $500,000. Median age of farm operators was 48. Median net farm income in 2014 declined to $54,543, from $90,629 in 2013. The 10 year high was $238,054 in 2012. Financial measures for 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008 and 2007 were much superior to those in other years for the 2005-2014 period. The Red River Valley and crop farms typically had stronger profitability, solvency, and repayment capacity than other regions and farm types, respectively, but not in 2013 and 2014. The 2014 median net farm income was $32,347 for crop farms compared to $95,130 for livestock farms, and $3,921 for Red River Valley farms compared to $69,995 for farms in the west region. Farms with sales less than $500,000 were nearly twice as likely to have debt-to-asset higher than 70 percent as farms with sales greater than $500,000. Farms that own some crop land, but less than 40 percent of the land they operate were more likely to be crop farms, farm more acreage, have larger sales, and be more profitable. As expected, solvency and percent of crop land owned increased with farmer age. Median net farm income as a percent of gross revenue was the lowest in the decade in 2014, at 12.5%, and the highest in 2012, at 36.8%.