Opportunity and overhead costs, as well as those for ownership, decrease with farm size

Vertical bar chart showing opportunity and overhead cost, ownership cost, and operating cost for farm sizes ranging from 20–49 beef cows to 500 cows or more.

Using data from USDA’s 2018 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, researchers at USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) found a cow-calf farm’s cost per cow declined as herd sizes grew and the costs were distributed among a greater number of animals.

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