2024 UNL Crop Budgets

collage of wheat, beans, corn and sugar beets.

2024 Crop Budget File Downloads

PDF Excel ABC Crop Enterprise Reports

The 2024 University of Nebraska–Lincoln crop budget projections were created using assumptions thought to be valid for many producers in Nebraska; however, each farming operation is unique and therefore, the budgets should be used as a guide when creating your own. The budgets are grouped by crop and provided currently in multiple formats including Excel and printable pdf files using the Excel format and the Agricultural Budget Calculator (ABC) program. Detailed information on how the budgets were developed, along with machinery and ownership costs, general variables, and material and service pricing are included in the introductory pages of the pdf file.

The current Nebraska crop budgets provide both a cash cost per unit of production and a total cost of production or economic cost per unit for each crop. The cash cost figure does not include the ownership cost of machinery and equipment used in field operations or a real estate opportunity cost, while the total cost figure in the budgets is an economic total cost that includes depreciation and opportunity costs of ownership using the assumption that the operator is a landowner. The crop budgets assume that the operator is the landowner by showing an opportunity cost of ownership. Producers that lease ground should adjust the land cost by noting a rental rate or share lease percentage.

With the development of the new Agricultural Budget Calculator (ABC) program, rather than using the Excel template, the crop budgets can be downloaded in the ABC program and then modified to fit individual farm operation enterprises.

The 2024 crop budgets were developed and edited by Robert Klein, extension western Nebraska crops specialist, and Glennis McClure, extension educator — agricultural economics. Contributing to the budgets in their specialty areas are Cody Creech, Extension Dryland Cropping Systems; Robert Harveson, Tamra Jackson-Ziems, Dylan Mangel, and Stephen Wegulo, Extension Plant Pathologists; Robert Wright, Extension Entomologist; Paul Jasa, Extension Biological Systems Engineer; Nevin Lawrence and Chris Proctor, Extension Weed Management Specialists; and Jay Parsons, Biosystems Economist, Agricultural Economics.

For more information on crop budget contents, contact Robert Klein, 308-696-6705.

To learn more about the budgets and to customize the UNL crop budgets using the new Ag Budget Calculator (ABC) program, contact Glennis McClure, 402-472-0661. Training sessions on the new enterprise budgeting program are scheduled on an ongoing basis. Visit cap.unl.edu/abc/training.  

Ag Budget Calculator Program

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The Agricultural Budget Calculator (ABC) Program makes it possible to download one or more of the Nebraska crop budgets into your own ABC enterprise budgeting account. Using ABC the budgets can be modified to create your custom crop budgets for 2024. Learn more at cap.unl.edu/abc or go directly to the ABC program at agbudget.unl.edu.

The Agricultural Budget Calculator (ABC) is an enterprise budgeting tool developed by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Ag Profitability. ABC is a free online program where farm managers and producers can download UNL’s budgets, then modify them with their own prices of material inputs, field operations, costs of machinery, repairs, labor, and other expenses, plus add their projected revenue to calculate returns above cash and all costs. Cost of production calculations and net revenue projections can be estimated by crop or by field or farm.

Ag Budget Calculator Trainings Scheduled

Online training sessions for new and existing users of the ABC program are scheduled now. For more information and to register, go to: cap.unl.edu/abc/training.

Grain IQ: A Grain Marketing Podcast

Watch or listen to Glennis McClure, farm and ranch management analyst with Nebraska Extension, on a recent episode of the Nebraska Rural Radio Network's podcast, "Grain IQ," hosted by Chad Moyer.

McClure leads the publication efforts for UNL crop budgets as well as the Agricultural Budget Calculator program. She recorded the podcast live at the Nebraska Ag Expo in Lincoln in December 2023. Luke Beckman, Grain Sales Manager at Central Valley Ag, is also featured as a guest.

Watch below or find the audio on your favorite podcast app.