Crop Enterprise Budget Tool

Sources & Notes: Cost and yield benchmarks adapted from University of Kentucky Extension Grain Profitability Outlook reports (Greg Halich, 2020–2026 series), with historical reconstruction for years where detailed line items were unavailable using published fertilizer unit prices, fuel prices, and summary gross return totals. Grain sorghum benchmarks from University of Tennessee Extension field crop budgets, adjusted for the western Kentucky input and price environment. Winter canola benchmarks available from 2024 onward, reflecting the start of commercial canola production in western Kentucky under contract. Yields reflect western Kentucky average-productivity soil (~175 bu corn, ~54–56 bu soybeans, ~72–88 bu wheat). Double-crop soybeans assume a ~10% yield drag vs. full-season beans; wheat and DC beans share machinery depreciation. Prices are season-average or forward contract prices reported each February for each crop year. Rental sustainability research from University of Illinois farmdoc, University of Minnesota FINBIN, Purdue, and Missouri Extension. All figures are per planted acre. Benchmark validation: the reconstructed 2020–2023 figures were cross-checked against the USDA Economic Research Service Commodity Costs and Returns series — the only fully machine-readable year-by-year cost data published online for that window. Corn and soybean yields and prices track the ERS figures closely, confirming the reconstruction; the larger gaps (notably wheat and grain sorghum yields) arise because ERS reports a single national average dominated by low-yield dryland Plains acreage, whereas these benchmarks are calibrated to higher-productivity western Kentucky ground. No publicly available online dataset provides a more region-accurate western Kentucky benchmark than the reconstructed figures used here; ERS validates the totals and trends but cannot replace the regional calibration. This tool is for educational purposes — adjust costs to match your operation. © Young Farm.