Structure of Six Farm Input Industries: Petroleum, Farm Machinery and Equipment, Fertilizers, Chemical Pesticides, Livestock Feeds, Farm Credit

Excerpts from the report Introduction: This report should provide a better understanding of the complexity of the industrial network that now underlies so much of modern farming. For those not fully acquainted with the farm input industries, the information will help put industry in perspective with agriculture. No major industry has changed more than farming in the last quarter century. Farmers are continually adjusting to new technology. And it is this adjustment which has meant a significant shift from farm-produced to industry-produced inputs. The farm, no longer the originating center for food and fiber production, is a halfway station in a long chain of production stages that begins with the farm input industries, passes through the farm, and goes on through further processing and transportation to the consumer. In 1966, farm production expenses totaled about $33 billion. Nearly half of the total was spent for six items--petroleum products, machinery, fertilizer, pesticides, feed, and interest on the farm debt. These leading expenses are mainly from the nonfarm sectors and are visible signs of commercial farming. They are going to affect farmers' decisions on production (output) even more in the future. Not only are the volume and quality of the inputs themselves important, but also the management services that frequently accompany them.