Financial performance configurations

The purpose of this paper is to examine the financial performance of a sample of crop/beef cow farms using the operating profit margin ratio and farm growth as relevant measures. Farms were divided into four performance categories: low profit/low growth; low profit/high growth; high profit/low growth; and high profit/high growth. Approximately 36 percent of the farms had above average operating profit margin ratios. Of this group, approximately 54 percent had a below average growth rate in the beef cow herd and the remaining 46 percent had an above average growth rate in the beef cow herd. Characteristics of these two groups were similar. However, interestingly, the farms with the above average growth rate in the beef cow herd, also had a higher growth rate in crop hectares from 2002 to 2009.