Crop Production Budgets Updated
US - University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Extension Crop Production Budgets are updated for 2010 to reflect industry trends and cost changes for 13 crops and 48 cropping systems.
25 January 2010
2 minute read
The budgets, prepared by Robert Klein, UNL Extension western Nebraska crops specialist, and Roger Wilson, UNL extension farm management/enterprise budget analyst, offer 13 systems for corn production, ranging from how water is applied to seed type used and tillage system.
Similar system differences are included in other crop budgets, Mr Klein said.
The number of system budgets for other crops include: eight for soybeans, seven for alfalfa, five for wheat, four for sorghum, two for sunflower, two for sugar beets and one for dry beans, sorghum-sudan, millet, pasture, oats, grass and grass hay.
Changes for the 2010 budgets include diesel fuel, fertiliser, herbicide and seed prices along with machinery operation, materials and services and overhead costs.
Another feature of the new budgets is that they include both total cost per unit and cash costs per unit.
"These budgets don't represent either specific or average operations, but rather are intended to be a base so operators can create new enterprise budgets tailored to their situation," Mr Klein said.
A key component of crop enterprise budgeting is using appropriate prices for input costs, Mr Klein said.
"The variability for input prices continues to be something everyone should be aware of when using any budgeting tool," he said. "Uncertain input prices were a particular problem in the 2009 budgets, since we saw a huge fluctuation in fuel and fertilizer prices from fall 2008 to spring 2009."
The budgets are only cost estimates and do not included projected incomes.
The 2010 UNL Crop Budgets are available at CropWatch or from a local UNL Extension office or at Crop Budgets.
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