2019 fall farm

Page 36 2019 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News Nov. 1, 2019 profit would amount to up to $2,000 per acre. The University of Tennessee in 2015 did an extensive study of production costs for tomatoes that appears to be spot on. It covers everything from plant costs to hired labor utilizing a 100 plant field that yields 700 pounds of fruit. The report assumes 700 pounds per 100 plant plot at $2.00 per pound. The gross revenue then is $1,400. The report covers all costs from plant costs to fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides (necessary for tomato production), hired labor, land cost, and more. The report also includes marketing costs for farmers markets. The bottom line, the report estimates total cost at $1,135.89 and net profit at $264.11 per 100 plants. The draw back on this report is that it assumes the grower is going to self-market, thus the $2.00 per pound gross revenue. When selling to a terminal or directly to a retailer, the grower cannot expect to get that kind of return. At $1.35 per pound the figures change to $945.00 per 100 plants. However, not all of the marketing costs will be figured into selling at a farm market. Take out the Annual Fee ($10), the Booth Fee ($73) and the hired labor to man the booth ($266.67) and reduce the net costs by $349.67. That brings net costs down from $1,135.89 to $786.22 and brings net profitability to $158.78 per 100 plant plot. The universities of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio have put together an excellent, 240 page guide to growing vegetables. Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers https://ag.purdue.edu/btny/midwest-vegetable- guide/Documents/2019/ID-56-W%202019.pdf The book covers in detail soil nutrient needs, herbicide needs and pest control. What it doesn’t cover is cost per acre of production. However, the last two-thirds of the book gives detailed information on specific vegetable crops from asparagus to squash to watermelon. The guide also provides contact information for a huge variety of university specialists including phone numbers and email addresses. Another document published by the Land Stewardship Project in September 2013 gives estimated figures on labor and cost. Alternative & Specialty Crops for growers in the Midwest https://misadocuments.info/ AlternativeandSpecialtyCrops.pdf According to that document, the average labor in hours per acre for vegetable crops is 220 hours per acre. The average total cost per acre is $5,000. At the same time, the report gives costs for some specific crops such as tomatoes and reports the cost per acre at $6,722. Green beans can also be big earners for the small farm. It is estimated that green snap and Continue 8