By GLENNIS McCLURE
Nebraska Extension Educator, Agricultural Economics
The 2021 University of Nebraska-Lincoln crop budgets have been released on Nebraska Extension’s CropWatch website, including 83 production budgets for 15 crops as well as information on crop budgeting procedures, standard costs used, and a production cost summary.
Twenty of the budgets for 2021 provide estimates for Panhandle cropping systems. One new spring wheat budget was added, No. 74, using southwest Nebraska land values and cropping system practices.
The 2021 budget projections were created using assumptions thought to be valid for many producers in Nebraska; however, each farming operation is unique. The University crop budgets are intended as a guide to producers as they prepare their own enterprise budgets.
To highlight a few of the 20 Nebraska Panhandle cropping system budgets:
Three irrigated corn budgets were prepared. Cash costs per acre range from $499 per acre to $542 per acre. Total costs, including land and machinery ownership costs, range from $637 per acre to $685 per acre. Average per-bushel cash cost of production estimates of these three budgets is $2.64 per bushel; the average total costs are $3.34 per bushel.
There are four irrigated dry edible bean budgets for 2021. Total costs range from $570 per acre to $609 per acre. Average costs per hundredweight yield of these four budgets (using 27-cwt yield for each) are $16.34 per hundredweight cash costs and $21.75 per hundredweight total costs.
A summary of cost calculations of other budgets relating to Nebraska Panhandle crop production is included in the attached chart.
General updates to the 2021 UNL crop budgets included a decrease in fuel costs from $2.27 per gallon diesel in the 2020 budgets to $1.50 per gallon for the 2021 budgets, therefore lower projections for field operation and some irrigation costs. With lower oil prices, adjustments to fertilizer and some chemical costs were decreased for 2021.
Land prices were adjusted upward by about 3 percent, based on the 2020 Nebraska Real Estate Report. With other costs showing increases over the past few years, overhead costs per acre for 2021 were raised to $25 per acre from $20 per acre in 2020.
All the 2021 budgets are grouped by crop and provided in two formats: a printable PDF file and an Excel worksheet that can be downloaded and updated to match the crop-production operations and expenses.
Both formats can be found at https://cropwatch.unl.edu/budgets
The Excel file is an integrated worksheet listing details in the first few worksheets that figure into the crop budget formulas. Land values, yearly rates, input prices, and machinery information can be changed.
Changes made in one Excel worksheet can affect many subsequent crop budget calculations.
Ag Budget Calculator (ABC) program in test phase
New for 2021 is the Agricultural Budget Calculator (ABC) program, developed by UNL’s Agricultural Economics department. The ABC program will provide a user-friendly approach for creating crop budgets. Producers and managers can access the ABC program online and create their own enterprise budgets from scratch or download the University budgets that fit their cropping systems and then customized them as their own.
Learn more about the new program at farm.unl.edu/abc. Phase I of the ABC program is available now for use by those interested in testing it as they prepare their own 2021 crop budgets.