2014 projected crop enterprise budget
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EmailA budget tool is available for farms to react to changes in farm inputs and lower corn prices will have on their farms bottom line.
The price of corn is different from the prices that were posted on the elevators wall the past few harvest seasons. With the price of corn now more than 35 percent lower than the same time last year, farms will need to make adjustments in the budget for the next year.
If you are one of those producers who like to put some of your own numbers into a spreadsheet budget to evaluate your own situation, there is a resource for you. I have designed a crop enterprise budget template in Excel that you want to take a look at. The budget simulation is designed to allow the user to compare up to five crop budgets side by side. This template can be useful in simultaneously comparing the impact changes in input values have across the group of five crop budgets.
The enterprise budget is designed to calculate a custom machine work rate of return for each crop enterprise budget that is customized for your individual farm. This can help you evaluate your cropping system by developing several “What if” scenarios. Using the custom machine work rate format allows your farm to consider the cost of covering the machine work and should cover the farms fuel, operator labor, repairs, supplies and depreciation on equipment for each crop rather than an allocated Schedule F cost. Looking at a farm’s crop production mix at this time of the year is very important as most farms are well into the process of ordering and purchasing inputs for the 2014 production season. Taking several looks at potential changes in production, price and input costs is a great risk management tool. The use of an input driven template may be something that you should do.
Farms can find additional farm management resources at the Michigan State University Extension FIRM webpage.
