Costs of Producing Selected Crops in the United States, 1975, 1976, and Projections for 1977

Excerpts from the report Introduction: Farm production costs are of interest to producers concerned with adequate returns to their labor and investment. Consumers are concerned with production costs as they affect retail food price levels. Public policymakers, concerned with the welfare of producers and consumers alike, view production costs as important economic indicators. To serve these needs, and for a wide variety of other purposes for which cost information is useful, the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the Department of Agriculture annually prepares estimates of the costs of producing the major agricultural commodities. This report contains updated estimates of previously published production costs for 10 major crops [cotton, corn, sorghum, barley, oats, wheat, soybeans, flaxseed, peanuts, rice] for the years 1974, 1975, and 1976. Continuing the 3-year focus, estimates in this report for 1975 are considered to be “final estimates.” Estimates for 1976 are “preliminary” and those for 1977 are “projected.”