This enterprise budget is designed to help producers, researchers, and industry stakeholders evaluate the economic performance of a typical oyster farm that uses floating cage production methods.

This budget provides a comprehensive breakdown of a farm’s expenses and revenues. This includes a sensitivity analysis component that illustrates how changes and uncertainty in oyster prices can affect farm-level outcomes. It estimates the farm-gate costs and returns of an operation but does not include costs associated with processing, distribution, or shipping.

Every oyster operation is unique, so the numbers should be adjusted to account for those differences. Farmers can enter their own data in the highlighted yellow cells. Pay particular attention to labor costs, which can vary substantially among farms and have a significant impact on profitability. A simplified and interactive calculator related to oyster production is available on the Expense Calculator for Oyster Farms web page at aces.edu.

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