1999 BUSINESS ANALYSIS SUMMARY FOR GENERAL LIVESTOCK FARMS

Farm types were assigned using the 1992 Census of Agriculture's Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) definitions. Basically, any farm with 50 percent or more of value of farm sales from one item becomes a farm of that type. General livestock farms have 50 percent or more of value of combined sales from livestock and livestock products, such as milk, beef animals, hogs, and wool. This report is a summary of the financial and production records kept by dairy farmers enrolled in the Telfarm/MicroTel record program through Michigan State University Extension. Farm records were included if a Finan summary was completed on 1999 data including beginning and ending balance sheets, plus income and expenses. The summary was included if cash discrepancy was less than 10% of gross cash inflow, and if the debt discrepancy was less than $1,000. The averages are reported in the tables that follow; it should be recognized that considerable variability exists in the data. The unweighted mean of the net farm income for the 7 farms was $37,342, the standard deviation of the mean was $46,573 and the median was $37,342. The unweighted mean of the acres cropped was 738; the standard deviation of the mean was 214, and the median was 738. This report has three purposes: 1)to provide statistical information about the financial results on dairy farms during 1999; 2)to provide production costs for comparative analysis and forward planning; and 3)to provide information on the trends in resource use, income and costs during the last few years. Following long term trends may be a problem, as Telfarm/MicroTel and the Department of Agricultural Economics in 1995 adopted Finansum and a different software package for doing annual analysis. For general livestock farm averages of 1995, see Staff Paper No. 96-86, Michigan Farm Database, New Directions for 1995, which contains averages of 12 general livestock farms calculated with Finansum. During 1996 and 1997, there were not enough general livestock records in the system to publish averages. Staff Paper No. 99-33, 1998 Business Analysis Summary for General Livestock Farms, contains averages of 13 general livestock farms calculated with Finansum. These staff papers ave available from the author at http://www.msu.edu/user/not