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  • From: Jane Cigard <jcigard AT everestkc.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Profit per acre
  • Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 14:38:09 -0600

>Rick wrote:


>Does anyone have any average figures or research reports that indicate an
>average profit per acre for various garden vegetables? I did find an
>K-State publication that provides expected harvest per acre for common
>vegetables and I can extrapolate the numbers for our local prices, but it
>would be helpful to have information from other parts of the country,
>national averages, or spreads.

>Thanks,

>Rick Hopkins
>President
>American Pasturage, Inc.
>P.O. Box 190
>Marionville, MO 65705

Because I am also interested in this information, I forwarded this question
on to extension specialists at Kansas State University. Here is what they
told me:


As far as the average profit per acre, they might get the answer from
the commercial production series. They are published by crop. There
are guides for asparagus, cole crops, snap beans, sweet corn,
watermelons, muskmelons, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. Go to the web
link below and in "quick search" type in the name of the vegetable
and look for the commercial production guides:
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/

In our publication 'Farming a Few Acres of Vegetables' (the link is
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/hort2/MF1115.pdf) there is
an indication of yields/acre but not necessarily a crop budget per
se. We have some additional publications in a Commercial Production
of Vegetables series ie. Commercial Production of Tomatoes,
Asparagus, etc etc. that do have individual crop production budets
indicating estimates for fixed and variable costs, general wholesale
selling prices, and potential returns per acre.
There are obviously some big variations that can occur for small
scale growers-selling primarily at retail prices compared to larger
scale growers selling wholesale. When I am asked that question on a
general basis, my response is usually $1,000 per acre of returns over
expenses ON AVERAGE. There are obviously some crops such as tomatoes
where a much greater potential return per acre is possible but a much
larger labor effort is required. My counterparts in Virginia and
Kentucky have some rather exensive crop production budgets developed
that you may be able to find by exploring their university web
sites: Virginia at Virginia Tech and Kentucky at the University of
Kentucky.

Charles W. Marr, Extension State Leader-Horticulture
Kansas State University, Manhattan KS 66506

Hope this helps.

Jane Cigard
Future market farmer
Lenexa, Kansas




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