Labor expenses are highest on specialty crop farms and lowest on corn operations

Source: USDA news release

Labor expenses accounted for about 15 percent of total cash expenses across all U.S. farms in 2024, but the share varied widely by commodity specialization.

Specialty crop farms, including fruit and tree nuts, vegetables and melons, and greenhouse and nursery operations, had the highest labor expense share. Labor accounted for about 40 cents of every dollar of cash expenses on these farms, nearly three times the all-farm average.

Image Credit - USDA ERS

At the other end, labor represented 4 percent of cash expenses on corn farms and 6 percent on farms specializing in soybeans, cattle, general cash grains, wheat, or hogs. The comparatively low shares for field crop farms are consistent with production systems that are more highly mechanized than specialty crop farms. Field crop farms benefit from higher adoption rates of labor-saving innovations, such as autosteer and insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant seeds.

Among livestock categories, poultry farms had the highest labor expense share (21 percent), followed by the broad "all other livestock" category at 19 percent and dairy farms at 12 percent.

Image credit - USDA NASS