Farm production expenditures skyrocketed to $318.7 billion in 2011, a 10.2 percent increase over 2010, according to the Farm Production Expenditures 2011 summary released recently by the Agriculture Department's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
The largest expenditure category was feed, on which farmers spent an average of $25,129 in 2011. This was followed by farm services ($17,075); livestock, poultry and related expenses ($13,163); and farm labor ($12,334). Half of all production expenditures on U.S. farms could be accounted for in these four categories.
In keeping with the trend of recent years, farms also faced significant costs for fuel, spending more than $15.3 billion in 2011. Diesel fuel made up nearly two-thirds of all fuel expenditures, with farmers spending more than $10 billion on this fuel type in 2011, a 23.7 percent increase from 2010.