Per-acre budget calculator
Crop Budget Calculator
For farmers who want a per-acre cost, revenue, and breakeven read on a crop before they commit seed, fertilizer, and cash to the field.
The AgriTerra Crop Budget Calculator is a free tool that builds a per-acre budget for a crop on any U.S. parcel — costs on one side, projected revenue on the other — and shows your net return and breakeven before you spend on inputs. It is built for farmers and landowners planning a season, and its defaults come from USDA ERS cost-of-production figures and USDA NASS pricing, every one of which you can override with your own numbers.
How the calculator works
- Pick a parcel and a crop. Start a new budget scenario for the field you’re planning and choose the crop — corn, soybeans, wheat, or another the parcel supports.
- Start from USDA cost defaults. The calculator pre-fills seed, fertilizer, chemical, fuel, and operating costs from USDA ERS Commodity Costs & Returns for that crop and region, so you’re not starting from a blank sheet.
- Override with your real numbers. Every line is editable. Drop in your actual seed price, your fertilizer program, your custom-hire or machinery costs — the budget is meant to become your budget.
- Set yield and price. Enter your expected yield and a cash price; the basis tracker helps you land a realistic local price rather than a distant futures number.
- Read net return, breakeven, and sensitivity. The tool computes net return per acre and the breakeven yield and price, then a sensitivity table shows how that net return swings as price and yield move up or down — so you see the range, not just the point estimate.
What the numbers are based on
A crop budget is only trustworthy if you can see where each figure came from. Here the defaults are named federal data, not house assumptions:
- Costs — USDA ERS Commodity Costs & Returns, the federal cost-of-production series covering seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, repairs, and operating costs by crop and region.
- Price — USDA NASS pricing for the crop, adjusted toward your local cash price with a basis tracker so the revenue line reflects your elevator, not a national average.
- Yield — your input, because you know your fields; NASS county yields are available as a sanity check.
Two concrete examples of what the output looks like (illustrative, not a quote for your ground): a corn budget might total roughly $820/acre in costs against $960/acre revenue at 200 bu and $4.80 — a $140/acre net return with a breakeven near 171 bu. Nudge the price to $4.30 in the sensitivity table and that same budget slips to roughly breakeven — the kind of swing that’s far easier to plan around when you can see it before planting.
A worked example
A 220-acre field in Champaign County, Illinois. The operator is deciding between continuous corn and a corn–soybean rotation. Building both budgets side by side, the corn scenario carries higher input costs — more nitrogen, more seed — but also higher gross revenue; the soybean scenario is leaner on both.
With ERS costs pre-filled and the operator’s own fertilizer and seed prices swapped in, the two net-return-per-acre figures come out closer than expected. The deciding factor turns out to be the sensitivity table: the corn budget’s net return collapses faster when price drops, while soybeans hold up. For an operator worried about a soft price year, the budget makes the risk visible in dollars per acre rather than gut feel.
Who it’s for
Row-crop farmers pricing a season before the input bill lands, landowners checking whether a cash-rent offer beats farming the ground themselves, and new operators who need a defensible budget for a lender or a landlord. Once you know a field’s cost and return, the farmland use optimizer puts that farming return next to cash rent, CRP, and energy on the same acres.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the crop budget calculator free?
- Yes — building a per-acre budget, running the sensitivity table, and saving scenarios are all free, with no account required. The $39 land report is a separate, optional product that bundles the parcel’s full federal-data analysis into a PDF.
- Do I have to create an account?
- No. You can build and compare budget scenarios without signing up. An email is only needed if you want a report emailed to you.
- What cost and price data does it use?
- The cost side starts from USDA ERS Commodity Costs & Returns — the federal cost-of-production figures for seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, and operations — and the revenue side uses USDA NASS pricing plus a basis tracker for local cash price. You can override any line with your own actual costs.
- How accurate is the budget?
- It is only as good as its inputs, which is why every default is a named USDA figure you can replace with your own numbers. The point is a defensible starting budget and a clear breakeven, not a promise of a yield or price you’ll actually get.
- Can I compare more than one crop or scenario?
- Yes. You can build multiple scenarios — a corn budget next to soybeans, or the same crop at two price assumptions — and the sensitivity table shows how net return per acre moves as price and yield change.
- Does it work outside the Corn Belt?
- The USDA ERS and NASS data behind it are national, so you can budget a crop for any U.S. county. Coverage of the most granular local basis is strongest where Scout’s parcel data is live and expanding from there.
Related tools
Land-Use Optimizer
Rank every use of your acres — row crops, cash rent, CRP, solar, wind — by projected return.
farmland use optimizer →Decide
Compare farming, a solar lease, and CRP on 5-year income, capital, reversibility, and risk.
farm vs. solar vs. CRP calculator →Or see all six free farmland tools.
Know the breakeven before you plant.
Build a free per-acre crop budget on any U.S. field — USDA cost defaults, your own overrides, and a sensitivity table in minutes.
Free to use without an account. The full 20-page PDF report is $39.