Given the diminishing margins we are seeing in corn and beans this year, final decisions on crop inputs for the 2024 growing season will make a huge difference to your bottom line. It is never too early or too late to re-evaluate input costs before you to plant the 2024 crop. The most important task between now and planting is to make informed decisions.

Crop enterprise budget planning is not exactly a task most people get excited about. My experience suggests it ranks somewhere between a trip to the dentist and filing annual income taxes. Current local cash grain prices are approximately $3.50 (after a $0.45-$0.50 basis) for corn while new crop is around $3.85. Old crop and new crop soybeans are around $10.45 (after a $0.90 basis). Similarly, old crop and new crop winter wheat remains steady at $4.75. As a result, it would be prudent to determine not only your intended plantings and management strategies, but to also create an alternative plan (or plans) if you are forced to make a change based on market conditions.

Estimating your 2024 farm expenses

The UW–Madison Division of Extension Crop Enterprise Budget Tool can help you determine the economic impacts of your final seed, fertilizer, herbicide, and other input purchases as you plan for the 2024 growing season. While you will need to update the input costs and values to match your expected 2024 farm expenses, they provide a structure for you to begin analyzing how your various cropping plans will impact your cost of production and your potential profitability given estimated expenses, potential yields, and possible prices to be received upon harvest. New this year are printable forms for corn grain, soybeans, and winter wheat that can be used to determine values longhand using paper, a pencil, and a calculator.

As you progress through the budgeting process, it is important to use reliable estimates of crop yield, input prices, and rates for field operations. Therefore, in developing the initial budgets, average custom rates were used, where available, utilizing National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) data and Custom Rate Guides for Wisconsin (2020/2023 Update) and Iowa (2023). Custom rates are sourced from the Wisconsin Custom Rate Guide 2023 or 2023 Iowa Farm Custom Rate Survey (link will update to 2024 when data is available).

Published average crop yield data is available by county from NASS, and alfalfa yield data is available from the UW–Madison Division of Extension.

Using the Crop Enterprise Budget Tool

When the required input and pricing data is input into a particular crop budget, the expected net return per acre is identified at the bottom of the spreadsheet. This information can be used to evaluate the impact of various inputs and practices on your cost of production for each commodity on your farm, as well as help you make the tough input and management decisions necessary to increase your probability of having a profitable 2024 growing season. 

Both digital and print versions of the tool are available here. As a potential budgeting starting point, you may find Wisconsin 2023 crop yield data useful if you do not have actual production history (APH) values for your farm.

Helpful data points for creating your farm budget