Budgeting Costs and Returns for Indian River Citrus Production, 2003-04
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Budgeting Costs and Returns for Indian River Citrus Production, 2003-04

   

Budgeting Costs and Returns for Indian River Citrus Production, 2003-041

Ronald P. Muraro and John W. Hebb2

The following is the abstract of a much larger report, which is only available in pdf format. To access the complete report, please click here .

Abstract

Estimated costs and returns of growing seedless grapefruit in the Indian River area of Florida are presented for the twentieth year. The format presented may be used by individual growers to budget costs and returns, utilizing individual data on specific groves.

Key words: citrus, Indian River, budgeting, costs and returns, seedless grapefruit.

NOTE: The Indian River production area refers to the citrus producing counties on Florida's east coast, including Brevard, Indian River, Martin, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie.

The budgeted cost information presented herein is the most current available. The budget cost items have been revised to reflect current grove practices being used by growers (e.g., chemical mowing, different spray materials and rates of fertilization, microsprinkler irrigation, more reset trees, etc.). Thus the 2003-04 budget costs reflect reduced fertilizer for fresh market grapefruit and lower fertilizer and pesticide materials costs and increased per acre yield due to higher per acre tree densities.

The budget costs in this report represent a custom-managed operation. Therefore, all equipment costs are based on the average custom rate costs along with a 10 percent handling and supervision charge added to the material cost.

Although the estimated annual per acre grove costs listed are representative of a mature citrus grove (10+ years old), the grove care costs for a specific grove site may differ depending on tree age, tree density and the grove practices performed (e.g., spot herbicide for grass/brush regrowth under trees could add an additional $16.60 per acre; Diaprepes control could add $73.20 per acre for each foliar application; extensive tree loss due to blight or tristeza could substantially increase the tree replacement and care costs; spray applications to control citrus leafminer and nematicide applications, such as Temik at $119.33/acre, could increase the total cultural costs per acre above the average costs shown in the comparative budgets; or travel and set-up costs may vary due to size of the citrus grove and distance from grove equipment barn and could add $25.98 per acre; etc.

Footnotes

1. This is EDIS document FE527, a publication of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Published February 2005. Please visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2. Ronald P. Muraro, Professor and Extension farm management economist, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Citrus Research and Education Center, Lake Alfred, FL, and John W. Hebb, Extension citrus agent, St. Lucie County, Flort Pierce, FL, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Larry Arrington, Dean.


Copyright Information

This document is copyrighted by the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) for the people of the State of Florida. UF/IFAS retains all rights under all conventions, but permits free reproduction by all agents and offices of the Cooperative Extension Service and the people of the State of Florida. Permission is granted to others to use these materials in part or in full for educational purposes, provided that full credit is given to the UF/IFAS, citing the publication, its source, and date of publication.