September 12, 2008

Planning for next year's crop has already started for many growers as they look at ordering seed and inputs and are faced with prices two to three times what they paid last year. Energy and fertilizer are showing the largest cost increases followed closely by glyphosate products.

To provide a current look at crop production and pest management costs, I've updated several budgets from EC872, Nebraska Crop Budgets 2006, produced by Roger A. Selley, editor, with Tina Barrett and Robert N. Klein, co-editors. Assisting with the development of the 2006 budgets were Extension Educators Paul Hay, Tom Holman, Keith Jarvi, Ron Seymour, and Gary Zoubek.

These updated budgets are available in a PDF format and linked from the list. Also included are the 2009 prices used in these budgets and a worksheet for calculating the costs other than operating and use-related depreciation.

Robert Klein
Extension Cropping Systems Specialist
West Central REC, North Platte