The economic situation of the test farms since 1990

The agricultural income of the test farms of the Central Analysis of Accountancy Data de-creased significantly between 1990 and 1995. The income situation slightly recovered in 1996 and 1997. Taking the general price increase into account, however, the nominal income remains clearly below the level reached at the beginning of the nineties. Over the course of the past years, agricultural income and equity capital formation were strongly influenced by the evaluation of the cattle livestock in the balance sheet. The farm cash flow is corrected with respect to these effects. It defines the liquid internal resources earned during the respective exercise. On an average, it covers approx. 90 % of the investments made.