Nice cost data for a broad array of agricultural commodities. For use in teaching Perfect Competition.

Given my limited editing skills in Excel, I condensed some cost data on various agricultural commodities. All costs are projected costs for the 2014 planting season.

All this and MORE can be found at the terrific US Dept of Agriculture Economic Research center.

It is conveniently organized by cost category:  Variable Costs and Fixed Costs.

What is even more EXTRAORDINARY and helpful when teaching the cost structure of a firm is the fixed costs includes "implicit costs", or Opportunity Costs.

The implicit costs are (1) unpaid labor---the farmers opportunity cost of farming and not doing something else. (2) Capital Recovery (depreciation AND "the rental rate of Capital").  (3) Land---the opportunity cost of using the land for farming the particular commodity as opposed to using it for something else.

Students can quantify and graph the respective cost curves (AVC, AFC, ATC, MC), then find the current market price for a commodity and observe if the "firm/farmer" is making economic profit, loss or "normal profits".  These are all important terms in AP Microeconomics.

Hope this helps in your teaching/learning.

These are the COSTS PER ACRE PLANTED for each commodity.