Final Numbers for the Year

I'm not sure how many of you are the kinds of folks that love sitting in front of spreadsheets, seeing what kind of information you can pull out of the data from the year.  I have to admit I enjoy it every once in a while.

I sat down today with Kji and we ground out a few numbers on the 2011 season, adding up hours, expenses and sales.  So, it looks like we're somewhere in the ballpark of making $9.50/hr in the 2011 year (net income, before taxes).  That's our best year yet, but I think it could get even better (by a dollar or two).  Our expenses were actually a little higher this year than in previous years, about 20% of gross, up from about 18%, so perhaps not really that different.  On a per acre basis we're not as high as I would have expected, coming in at about $53K/acre gross income.

Going through the numbers for the year is so interesting.  There are patterns in the work hours that are really obvious looking at the calendar, but don't show up as clearly just looking at things from week to week.  The same is true of looking back at expenses.  In some ways I'm surprised by how much we spend on things like seed ($700), but also on how few expenses we actually have.  Low expenses are certainly one of the keys to making any money for us.