Division of Extension
The Custom Rate Guide is a summary from a mail survey which collected rates paid by Wisconsin farmers who hired custom work, custom operators and farmers who performed custom work, and machinery dealers who rented out equipment for field operations including manure services, tillage, planting, fertilizer & chemical application, harvest operations, and machinery rental.
The UW Crop Enterprise Budget Tool can be used to help estimate the cost of production for your crops. A printable version of this resource is also available.
For farmers who practice cover cropping or reduced tillage, use the Crop Budget Analyzer to capture a snapshot of the immediate financial expenses and income that a farm may experience in using practices such as cover cropping and reduced tillage, particularly in grain crop systems.
This tool is intended to capture a snapshot of the immediate financial expenses and income that a farm may experience in using practices such as cover cropping and reduced tillage, particularly in grain crop systems.
Estimating, or even better knowing, your cost of production on a per bushel or per ton basis helps to determine marketing or purchasing strategies.
Pricing corn silage is a difficult decision because it often comes at a time when emotions between sellers and buyers are high. The seller has the opportunity to sell a corn field for either silage or grain and incorporate the fertilizer value of the stover back into the field. The buyer has the opportunity to buy a corn field for silage or buy grain from the market and purchase low quality straw (wheat or corn stover aftermath) to formulate rations.
