The agricultural company is set up in the traditional manner of growing agricultural produces and selling them at an appropriate margin. While growing the agricultural produce, the crops are value added by way of direct labor.
The agricultural company may also involve itself in the direct selling of seeds and saplings to direct customers. After growing the saplings for a few weeks, these are readily made available for sale, and after the addition of margin, these are sold to the customers.
Cost of goods sold for the landscaping business
These are also called variable costs. The cost of goods sold is operating expenses directly related to the products, i.e., agricultural produce such as vegetables, seeds, and saplings the business sells.
COGS should include the cost of labor, inputs, and materials used and the portions of overhead related to production.
Small farms are complicated businesses for COGS calculations since there are few clear distinctions between production, sales, management, etc. The labor cost is generally split between harvesting, selling at the market, and bookkeeping.
However, the cost of harvesting labor is only included in COGS. It becomes difficult to allocate overhead costs between production and other business functions. The various costs in an agriculture company are as follows:
Field Costs By acre
These are seasonal costs meaning these are irregular in nature and occur only in particular months of the year, preferably before the seeds are harvested:
- Cost of regular labor as starting seeds, watering, transplanting, staking, and weeding
- Cost of potting soil and trays
- Cost of seeds
- Cost of black plastics or amendments
All the above costs are also considered as the cost of supplies or cost of direct labor for an agriculture company
Field costs by the case
These costs are incurred in each of the vegetable cases wisely. Suppose the company is growing cauliflower then, the cost would be all those components of the cost related to the growth of cauliflower. These are
- Cost of labor such as harvesting, sorting, and packaging
- Cost of supplies
Item-wise cost of goods sold
Costs of Goods Sold are expenses that are directly attributed to the amount of production. COGS are reported on the Income Statement and are segregated from Operating Expenses, which are not directly tied to production. These include:
- Animal Feed & Minerals Expense
- Vet & Medical
- Replacement Animals
- USDA Processing Cost
- Packaging
Statement of Cost of Services Rendered
Agricultural Company
| Particulars | Amount ($) | Amount ($) |
| Beginning inventory of supplies | X | |
| + Purchases (Direct materials) | X | |
| -Purchases returns | X | |
| + Direct labor (Cost by field wise either by the acre or by each case) | X | |
| Cost of goods and services | XX | |
| -Ending inventory | (X) | |
| Cost of services rendered/ COGS | XX |
Knowing COGS is very important to analyzing the profitability of the business. Different products within a farm business have other COGS and different levels of gross profit. Labor associated with production is added to COGS, while marketing and sales are added to operating expenses.