A new publication, titled "Financial Characteristics of North Dakota Farms, 2004-2013," summarizes the performance of more than 500 farms enrolled in the North Dakota Farm Business Management Education program. Andy Swenson, NDSU farm management specialist, prepared the report.
Swenson found acreage per farm has remained fairly stable the past 10 years as young farmers replaced retiring producers. In 2013, average and median acreage per farm was 2,581 and 1,865, respectively. However, farm gross cash revenue has more than doubled. In 2013, the average and median gross cash revenue was $868,840 and $606,730, respectively. Median total farm assets increased 130 percent and median total farm liabilities increased 59 percent during the past 10 years. In 2013, more than 70 percent of the farms were crop farms and the median age of a farm operator was 48.
There was a significant decline in financial performance in 2013 because of sharply lower grain prices and about 8 percent higher crop production costs per acre. Median net farm income dropped 62 percent to $90,629 from the record high profit year in 2012.
"Financial performance in 2007-12, excluding 2009, was much superior to years in the 2004-13 period," said Swenson. "Overall performance was the worst in 2006. It was the best in 2012 due to record crop prices and surprisingly strong yields for nearly all crops because stored soil moisture from a wet 2011 sustained crops through the dry summer."
The publication uses 16 financial measures to evaluate liquidity, solvency, repayment capacity, profitability and financial efficiency.
Farms are grouped by region, type, size, gross cash sales, land tenure, profit, debt-to-asset ratio and the age of the farmer to look at relationships between financial performance and farm characteristics.
For a free copy of the publication, contact the NDSU Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, Dept. 7610, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108- 6050, or call 701-231-7441. The publication also is available at http://purl.umn.edu/187187.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.