Costs per acre per year to run a farm?

Question

I put every dollar I spend in a year into a spreadsheet so I know exactly what price I need out of my crops to breakeven. I am curious if anyone would help me find out how my costs compare to other farms. I am talking about EVERY dollar the farm spends in a year averaged by total acres per crop, not just crop inputs.

For soybeans I have been about $390 per acre.

For corn I have been about $512 per acre.

Thanks for any input, I appreciate the help,

Everyone can stay anonymous if they want.

For soybeans I have been about $390 per acre.
For corn I have been about $512 per acre.

Thanks for any input, I appreciate the help,
Everyone can stay anonymous if they want.

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Haven’t kept track fir a while, curious to see how sone spreadsheets are setup

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made my go to one on excell

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Round #’s $115 seed $100 nitrogen $100 P&K $35 chemical $250 rent  machinery is difficult, using custom rates. ~$45 includes drying costs plenty of small misc. including insurance on corn

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Anybody have any more spreadsheets to share?  I am new to farming and taking over an unmanaged, unkept, broken down old family farm in southern Indiana.  We have about 350ac of abused dirt after 20yrs of tenant farmers on the ground.  I am finding no locals that will teach or mentor me much less share any information.  Thanks.

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I've used granular for 2 crop cycles now.  2020 does not have the overhead cleaned up and adjusted in proper yet.  I think your $400 for soybeans is good.  2019 we where at $400.63 soybeans.  This is production expenses + operating costs. (includes depreciation)  Accrual adjusted.  No drawing included...however there are fringe benefits to management included in the operating that where dificult to sort out.  
If you want to drill down on this granular is the way to go.

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farmworks was the best for financials and precision ag.  but that is going away. traction  ag is working on getting to that level.  Granular I hear is good but wow expensive

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Just take total expenses off your taxes and divide them by acres planted. I realize every crop is different but I feel I need $300 across the board to support family living. Wheat barley corn soybeans canola oats. Maybe a little too simplified but works for me.

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There are some accounting services that include benchmarking.

It is difficult for any of us to help you without seeing your exact expenses by item per acre. Would also need to know yield goals, basis etc. I understand why you wouldn’t want to provide this level of detail on a public forum.

There are also independent financial consultants that specialize in agriculture. It might be worth the money to get their input into your costs.

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fin pac if you want to go thru your local colleges this class is very good to bench mark your self against fellow farmers year after year. also Farm works is very good if your detailed with your input.

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Lol I looked one year and I was up against irrigated farms. Take A careful look at all of info comparisons But I will say my banker loves them at FBFM . I take in their analysis of my operation and the master note is in the works.

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So if you finance equipment for three years, you are counting the payment? And I finance for seven years, makes my numbers look much better. You can only compare businesses that are all using accrual accounting. 
 Some farms yield much better than others, some rents are much cheaper than others. Very difficult to compare 30 bu wheat SW ground to 250 bu I state ground, by the acre. Can really only compare by locality.
Other things make comparisons difficult. One guy does everything with only family labor, has lots of livestock, uses only manure for fertilizer, and no herbicide. Another has no livestock, hires all chemical fertilizer and herbicide applied, hires all trucking.

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My Son helped me develop spreadsheets as well and we have been doing it for many years. We also have a feedlot so it is a must to do the spreadsheet to know what the true cost is. We get paid wages and so that gets difficult to distinguish what used what and some tractors as well. We do not do accrual accounting since we want to be cash for tax purposes, BUT we do things very simular every year...

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Last year our corn was 524 per acre, soybeans 384, and spring wheat 415.
These were the lowest in many years and we worked hard to get it that way, no snake oil or foo foo dust just the basics, except fungicides on all, which is not normal
I do not do the best job of accounting for any storage or costs related to storage and need to do better there.   I do not have a drier so I have a really good handle on that as it is easy this way.  I really struggle getting consistent and real numbers from guys with driers on actual costs.  They are usually forgetting many things when I quiz them about their costs.  I work hard on my input costs to keep them down, and my life simpler!

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Download a free IRS form Schedule F and make a spreadsheet out of it and you’ll have a good start.  You can detail out the line items you want more specific information on.

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On costs per acre, it seems like everyone uses or omits something different that the next guy. Unless you’re comparing the exact same costs, then it’s not easy to compare. I have mine figured to include EVERYTHING I pay for.....from seed to a pack of gum beside the checkout register. 
 FBFM has Illinois’ end of the year net as negative 27 of the last 40 years and positive 13 of the last 40 years. That’s not sustainable!  What are some ways you all cut down a few dollars per acre?

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so what is your point.  we are all trying to make money.

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https://1ecdb396-8ea9-4a93-a1a2-5072d2bf8eea.filesusr.com/ugd/c902e6_eabbd776b6be4e9eb2911e983517fb15.xls?dn=5stepplan.Beechwood.xls
Check out this spreadsheet. 
You can add in additional expenses but this gives you a starting point.

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I think you guys are making this too complicated.  I figure EVERY dollar I spend in a year.  The categories on my spreadsheet are the same as the categories my accountant breaks all my expenses into, except crop specific items, (seed, fertilizer, chemicals, etc).  Crop specific items are entered into each specific crops.  All other expenses are broken down by the crop percentage of the whole farm.  ie... 2000 acre farm with 600 acres of corn, 30% of unspecific dollars go into the 'corn' column. 
 So, I don't think it matters how much specifically your rent is or what any of those other area specific things are.  They all average across the farm acres.  On equipment payments, I am figuring the payment in each specific year.  
And I am not asking about profit, only average farm costs per crop.
Keep it simple.
Thanks to the few that entered those numbers, I appreciate the help.

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First off this is a great question! There's great knowledge in the question itself, that I'll get back too. The problem is there's no true logical answer I feel, because every farm is so widely and incredibly different. Even neighbors would have a hard time comparing due to all the different practices that farmers use. Such as for an easy example are you no-till, vertical till, conventional till, deep till, do you use conventional seed or hybrid, how big is your combine? Is it a 4 or a 12, do you run tracks or tires, ******** mentioned do you spread your own fertilizer or hire someone to do it. the lists go on forever and will change drastically you're costs per acre. The fear I would have in this question is two sided on one side what if you happen to have the lowest cost per acre? Well first you might get an ego which seems to never help a farmer, and you may feel there's no need to push yourself to be better and to try new things. On the other hand if you have the highest cost per acre you may get so discouraged and depressed that you cant imagine new ideas, new ways, new areas to cut costs or build income on your crop itself. I love the farming industry and just being a farmer because of all the challenges that we get to face and how we are always learning and leaning into new ways to be more efficient with what we have. And how it doesn't matter how we compare to others because or farm is just that, it's "Our farm". Its how we run our land and how we make our ground and/or animals produce the highest quality products we can with what the good Lord has given us. So you see in my own opinion it doesn't matter how you compare because really there's nothing to compare to. I'm sure your farm is unique and special just like every other farm out there. Disclaimer is though, just cause we aren't the same doesn't mean we cant learn from one another. The reason I love this question is that it's getting some farmers to dig into there records and figure out what there breakeven is. Believe it or not some and maybe even majority don't even know there breakeven they just figure good price is good price and poor price is poor price. but when you have a solid figure, you know just when to lock in markets for your crop to make a profitable year. It may also make areas clear on where you can cut costs. I hope this helps.

God Bless you all, stay safe out there, 
and Merry Christmas

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I take every expense for specific fields (seed, fertilize, rent, lime divided by 3 to represent 3 year expense, don't include tile)) and figure that fields cost per acre. Then I add up every dollar I spend on anything else from Christmas toys, groceries, equipment payments and maintenence, large expenses like tile or land payments, grain bin payments, minivan payment for the wife, anything that I ...

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Verified FBN Member (ND)

4 years ago (edited)

why are you dividing seed, fert, rent, lime by 3. that would be this year's expense. not 3 years

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I think we are around $340 for beans and $540 for corn. In that neighborhood anyway. 
That's based on spreadsheet costs. There are a few misc costs that would add $5-10 per ac. And doesn't include family living expense (time).
Edit: Doesn't include rent either.

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loan total $85.37 / acre     personal  $35.88 / acre     fertilizer,nitroge,hernicide,seed $225.40
these are all per income acre . all else repairs insurance labor prop taxes etc. $214.14  cash rent on all rented acres divided all income acres $85.37.    gross income per is $793 of which fsa is $68.54 per income acre. commercial corn and soybeans. you're right to keep those #'s in your mind always. It took me 10 minutes to pull those out for you. if you want to see how bad you're doing sign up for FBFM. It'll keep you humble and feeling like a spendthrift.

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I'm at 325 for wheat.  take out machinery payments and I'm at 225.  bought to much in the good years.  looking forward to 2022.  have one more year to make it through.  Learned a valuable lesson.  don't finance machinery.

Call (844) 200-FARM

Costs per acre per year to run a farm?