[bryanlarsen]

A gross income of 250,000 isn't a small farm, it's a hobby farm. The average margin for farms is 15%, and smaller farms are worse than large farms. A $250,000 gross likely means a <$20K net, and you can't support a family on that in America even if you grow your own food.

Worse than the small margin is the variability. A good year can have a 50% margin and a bad year a -25% one.

[xboxnolifes]

Where is the $230k going here?

[bryanlarsen]

Fuel, seed, fertilizer, herbicide, equipment maintenance, rent or interest, et cetera.

Page down a couple pages on this PDF, and they have a great breakdown for each crop:

https://www.saskatchewan.ca/business/agriculture-natural-res...

[xboxnolifes]

Do those not fall under COGS and would have already been accounted for in gross income?

[itsdrewmiller]

The metric used here is "GCFI" which does not include expenses. The small farms are not primary occupations. Here is a more useful description:

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-structure-...