Farm expenses rose to highest level in 2001

WASHINGTON – While farm prices are stagnant, farm expenses continue to balloon.

New data from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service shows agricultural producers spent $197.0 billion in 2001, an increase of 3.9 percent from 2000.

This represents the highest level of farm expenditures on record, and continues an upward trend.

The annual Farm Production Expenditures report, released by the NASS, also reveals the average expenditures per U.S. farm in 2001 were $91,547, up 4.6 percent from the 2000 average.

Other highlights include:

Farms with gross sales of $250,000 or more accounted for $117.7 billion, or 59.8 percent of total farm production expenditures. This was 8.5 percent more than the previous year.

The next largest category of farms, those with gross sales between $100,000 and $249,000, accounted for $34.2 billion (17.3 percent of the total), down 3.3 percent from 2000.

The Corn Belt contributed most to U.S. total farm production expenses with $36.6 billion, 18.6 percent of the U.S. total. Expenditures in the Corn Belt were up 3.2 percent from the 2000 level of $35.4 billion.

In terms of U.S. total farm production expenses, the Corn Belt was followed by the Pacific Region at $33.9 billion ($31.7 billion in 2000); Northern Plains at $26.4 billion ($24.3 billion in 2000); Lake States at $20.4 billion ($19.5 billion in 2000); and the Southern Plains at $16.5 billion ($16.1 billion in 2000).