Labor comprises a significant portion of total farm production expenses. About 36 percent of all farms had hired labor expenses and 12 percent had contract labor expenses. The importance of labor varied significantly by farm type and size of farm. These types of farms are the least mechanized, and many of the commodities they produce are still harvested by hand. At the other extreme, labor expenses comprised less than 5 percent of all production expenses on beef cattle, hog, sheep, poultry, and cash grain farms.
Larger farms are more likely to have labor needs in excess of that provided by the family farm.
Farms of 260 or more acres, which accounted for only 32 percent of all farms, had 70 percent of all labor expenses in 1992.