THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCOMES, FARM CHARACTERISTICS, COST EFFICIENCES, AND RATE OF RETURN TO CAPITAL MANAGED

Farm-level, cross-section and panel data were used with econometric methods to examine relationships between variability in the rate of return to capital managed and explanatory variables including government payments per crop acre, gross crop income, gross livestock income, costs, efficiency measures, and other socioeconomic characteristics. Quantifying the impacts of socioeconomic factors on variability of the rate of return was difficult. Increasing the standard deviation of gross revenue and government payments increased the variability in rate of return to capital managed. An increase in the variability of labor, crop & equipment, livestock, and interest costs had the opposite effect. In addition, increase in labor and livestock costs to gross revenue increases variability in the rate of return. The smaller the amount of land rented and the larger the number of acres, the higher the variability in rate of return. The panel data results indicated that annual changes in rate of return had a positive relationship with increases in gross revenues, government payments, and decreased changes in costs. Decreases in the efficiency of interest cost resulted in a larger change in the annual rate of return, whereas crop & equipment and livestock costs caused the opposite effect. Age and diversification had positive effects. The above findings reaffirmed that reducing the variation in government payments and gross revenue, and increasing the variation in costs, will lower the variability in the rate of return to capital managed. Cost efficiency measures were also important, but with the previous model, the effects on the rate of return were uncertain.