UNL crop production budgets for western Nebraska updated

By David Ostdiek
Communications Specialist
Panhandle Research and Extension Center

Panhandle farmers who need to find their bottom line have a useful planning tool in the annual Crop Production Budgets published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The budgets help producers calculate what it costs to raise a crop by the acre, or by the bushel (or other unit of production) in a wide variety of circumstances.

They are intended to represent typical budgets for crops grown across the state, according to Paul Burgener, ag economics research analyst at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center. Burgener said producers can use the figures provided in the budgets for fuel, pumping, chemicals, and other inputs, or they can estimate their own actual costs.

Statewide, the 2010 Crop Budgets for Nebraska include 48 different budgets for 13 crops. Among the 13 crops are several grown mostly or all in western Nebraska: dry beans, sugarbeets, sunflower and proso millet.

The 48 budgets reflect variations in irrigation method, tillage operations, pest and weed control, and other distinctions. For example, the budgets list four different systems for wheat production (differing by tillage system, rotation and irrigated vs. rain-fed) and 13 different systems for corn production.

The budgets are available on-line at http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/sendIt/ec872.pdf or cropwatch.unl.edu, or can be obtained at county extension offices. The on-line version is a 56-page PDF document that might take awhile to download for users with slower internet connections.

The annual Crop Budget report is edited by Robert N. Klein, Western Nebraska Crops Specialist, and Roger K. Wilson, Farm management/enterprise Budget Analyst. Burgener and several others are contributers. Burgener said the UNL Ag Economics Department has published the crop budgets for years. It is one of the department’s most popular publications.

The costs of various crop inputs this year show mixed trends, according to Burgener and Klein. "The variability for input prices continues to be something everyone should be aware of when using any budgeting tool," Klein 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 spike in fertilizer costs of 2009 has mitigated somewhat. Seed prices have increased across the board. This reflects both increased technology (corn, sugarbeets and soybean seed are predominantly Roundup Ready varieties). But seed costs also follow rising commodity prices. Fuel prices have increased over the last five or six years. The 2010 costs are not as high as the peak several years ago, but still higher than they were four or five years ago.

The UNL crop budgets are composed of several categories of costs. The first category, field operations, includes tillage, cultivation, irrigation, spraying, and work. The second category, materials and services, includes fertilizer, herbicide, seed and other similar inputs. Another category, overhead costs, includes scouting, crop insurance, land and taxes.

The bottom line is expressed both in the cost per acre and the cost per bushel. Some crops, such as dry beans, are sold by different units – in this case, hundredweights – and are expressed as such.

The budgets are only cost estimates and do not included projected incomes.

Some of the break-even costs for western Nebraska:

• Wheat: $3.50 to $4.00 per bushel
• Corn: $3.10 to $3.60 per bushel
• Sugarbeets: $28.00 per ton
• Dry beans: $19.00 per hundredweight
• Sunflower: $12.50 to $13.50 per hundredweight
• Proso millet: $7.62 per hundredweight