Crop Enterprise and Principal Rotation Budgets for Sustainable Agriculture Case Farms in South Dakota

The present research report provides a base for several types of analyses now underway and to be pursued further in the remainder of 1990 and in 1991. Those analyses include: (1) comparisons of net returns on sustainable and conventional farms in South Dakota; (2) estimations of the effects of changes in Federal farm programs and in other public programs and policies on the relative profitability of sustainable and conventional farming systems; and (3) assessments of the affects of conversions from sustainable to conventional systems on the strength of rural economies. Results of those analyses will be included in future reports. The program of research leading to the present research report, reports cited above, and future reports from the analyses just mentioned is supported by the SDSU Agricultural Experiment Station and by Grant No. 88-56 from the Northwest Area Foundation (in St. Paul, MN)