By Jack Davis
The SDSU Extension Crop Budgets are provided for producers to determine the preliminary cost of production for the major commodities grown in South Dakota.
To use the spreadsheet, producers should provide their own costs for the different expense items listed. In the spreadsheet, producers should know their anticipated seeding rate and seed cost, the rate of fertilizer (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, sulfur etc.) that will be applied, and the cost per unit for these items. The same needs to be done for all pesticides (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) that will be used.
Other costs that need to be included are: crop insurance, fuel and oil, repairs, custom hire, drying and operation interest rate.
These budgets are provided to aid producers with risk and price management decision making. Producers that know their cost of production can combine risk management tools, like crop insurance, with marketing tools to limit losses or increase their average selling price.
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