Clemson agriculture-finance expert upbeat about farm income

Published: March 10, 2010

CLEMSON — A Clemson University-agriculture finance expert forecasts that South Carolina farmers could see a greener — as in the color of money — year.

The applied economics and statistics department in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences publishes Agronomic Crop Enterprise Budgets for South Carolina. Wilder N. Ferreira, the enterprise budget specialist, has crunched the numbers and the results point to some lower costs, which may mean a better bottom line for farmers.

The lower cost of fertilizer looks to be significant. Last growing season, fertilizer was more expensive, according to Ferreira.

Enterprise budgets are designed as tools for projecting costs and returns for crop and livestock enterprises, and, more importantly, as guides for planning individual farms. The budgets are only general guidelines: each farm should develop budgets based on its specific situation.

“There are a lot of details involved, so I cannot say that all farmers will have a better year,” said Ferreira. “It depends on the crops they grow and how well they grow them, size of the operation, costs, soils, yields, market prices — and the weather, of course. What we provide are guidelines that farmers can use to figure what factors will affect their specific outgo and income.”

The crops included in the budget are barley, corn, cotton, oats, peanuts, soybeans, tobacco and wheat. Budgets also are done for vegetables and melons, specialty crops, forage and livestock. The budgets can be viewed online at http://cherokee.agecon.clemson.edu/budgets.htm.

“Farming is not for the faint-hearted,” said Ferreira. “It takes a lot of head-aching as well as back-breaking work. You hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”

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