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Finances
Cash flow trends from 2007 to 2024 show how crop farms rely on operating income and borrowed funds to drive growth through asset purchases. As income levels shift, so do investment decisions—offering key insights for managing through expected challenges in 2025.
Read MoreThere are three major changes that contribute to an increase or decrease in net worth: change in retained earnings, change in contributed capital, and change in market valuation. Tracking changes in net worth over time is one of the most important tasks of those in charge of analyzing a farm’s financial position and performance.
Read MoreThe Spring 2025 Indiana Farm Income Outlook, published by the Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center (RaFF), provides updated projections for Indiana farm profitability through 2026. The report highlights a projected 40% increase in Indiana net farm income in 2025—driven largely by higher government payments—and offers insight into trends in crop and livestock markets, production expenses, and policy impacts.
Read MoreRecent data shows that while farm input prices are influenced by general inflation, they often diverge due to distinct supply and demand dynamics for each input. This article explores long-term trends from 1973–2024 and highlights how inputs like labor and machinery tend to track inflation more closely than others like feed or fertilizer.
Read MoreProfitability expectations for corn and soybeans in Indiana have shifted sharply in recent months, driven primarily by changing crop prices and updated USDA yield estimates. Learn why soybeans continue to show a strong net return advantage—even as tariffs, market volatility, and evolving policy developments reshape the outlook—by diving into our month-by-month breakdown of budget projections from December through April.
Read MoreThe Purdue Crop Cost and Return Guide offers farmers a resource to project financials for the coming cropping year. These are the March 2025 crop budget estimations for 2025.
Read MoreLabor costs are one of the most prevalent costs on a farm. As such, farm managers need to evaluate whether they are utilizing labor efficiently and productively. One way to evaluate this issue is to use benchmarks created using data from similar farms. Labor benchmarks should include family and operator labor as well as hired labor.
Read MoreThe continued increase in size of tractors, combines, and other machinery has enabled farms to operate more acres and reduce labor use per acre. However, this increase in machinery size also makes it increasingly important to evaluate the efficient use of machinery.
Read MoreInterested in recent trends in feed costs for farrow-to-finish and swine finishing enterprises, and projections for 2025? Average feed costs in 2024 were substantially lower than feed costs in 2022 and 2023. Moreover, a further reduction in feed costs is expected for the upcoming year.
Read MoreThis spreadsheet can be used along with the Purdue Crop Cost & Return Guide to examine gross revenue, costs, and earnings for crop enterprises. The user can evaluate up to three full-season crops, and the wheat double-crop soybean system. Updated March 2025.
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