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Factors Affecting Profitability Of The Cow-Calf Enterprise In The Northern Great Plains, Barry H. Dunn, Dick Pruitt, Edward Hamilton, Duane Griffith

South Dakota Beef Report, 2005

One hundred and forty eight privately owned and operated cow-calf enterprises were surveyed for their production and financial performance measures and the results analyzed for factors that affected profitability. The results of these analyzes indicate that for cow-calf enterprises in the Northern Great Plains, high levels of profit are a function of lower than average investment, above average reproductive performance, lower than average total expenses, and above average market prices for calves produced. Neither high nor low levels of other biological production, geographical region, size of operation, or year were factors that explained differences in profitability. Profitability measured as Return …