2013 Nebraska Crop Budgets Now Available Online

Feb. 25, 2013

LINCOLN, Neb. — The 2013 Nebraska Crop Budgets have been estimated and posted online.

Fifty-three budgets for 16 crops are available from University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension's Cropwatch and the Department of Agricultural Economics. They can be found at cropwatch.unl.edu or agecon.unl.edu/budgets.

One challenge in estimating the budgets was determining prices for materials used in production, said Roger Wilson, extension farm management/enterprise budget analyst.

"This is accomplished through visiting with suppliers willing to share their views on price expectations," he added.

Costs per acre have increased again this year, varying from 7 to 13 percent for the corn budgets. The corn budget with the largest increase is conventionally produced continuous corn on dryland. A number of different corn budgets show a 7 percent cost increase, mostly no-till or reduced till systems.

Cost increases for the different soybean production systems range from 12 to 20 percent. The budget with the lowest per acre cost increase is for a gravity-irrigated, ridge-till system. The budget showing the highest cost increase is the pivot-irrigated, no- till system using Roundup Ready seed grown after corn.

The no-till fallow budget showed the least increase in cost (5 percent) for wheat production while the no-till following a row crop showed the most (12 percent).

In addition to estimating a total cost of production per acre, each budget also shows the cash costs of production. While these budgets do not estimate returns, they are based on a given yield which is used to calculate both a total and a cash cost per unit of production, Wilson said.

Generally, prices of inputs are higher. However, this year the price of all fertilizers included in the budgets are expected to be lower except for anhydrous ammonia.

Two areas where prices have increased substantially from last year's budgets are real estate costs and crop insurance.

It's expected that farmland prices will continue their upward trend. Since the revenue option is used to calculate crop insurance, higher commodity prices result in increased premiums.  

Wilson emphasized that the budgets are estimates based on assumptions.

"They should be examined carefully prior to being used for decision making, he said.