Farm Expenses and Net Revenue

Between the years 1974 and 2002, there was an increase of 135.14% on the total production expenses spent by farms in Massachusetts, and a 74% increase in the average production expences per farm. Between 1997 and 2002, the total farm production expenses had increased 6.29%, while the average farm production expenses increased greatly, by 27.54%. (A possible explanation for the average farm spending to increase is that the average farm size has increased in Massachusetts, while the total number of farms has decreased. Maybe since the average farm size has increased, the farmers need to spend more on supplies, etc to make up for the increased land in their farms).

The largest decrease (besides Nantucket) in total farm production expenses came from Plymouth County, which decreased by 39.81% between 1997 and 2002. (A possible explaination for this could be because of decreasing cranberry prices, decreasing the number of farms, which would decrease the amount that need to be spent on production expenses???) Nantucket saw a very large decrease as well. There production expenses dropped by 48.87% between 1997 and 2002. The counties that saw an increase in production expenses were Dukes (130.62%), Middlessex (49.36%), Norfolk (42.76%), Franklin (38.24%), Essex (37.73%), Worcester (27.26%), and Berkshire (20.46%).

The largest percent of production expenses was spent on hired farm labor, which made up 27.22% of the total expenses in 2002. This value has increased 11.98% since 1997, from $88,972 to 99,292. The least amount of money is spent on livestock and poulty purchases, at $6,482, which make up only 1.78% of total expenditures, and has decreased 15.52% from 1997.