Whether it’s done in an Excel spreadsheet or simply mulled over in one’s mind, “budgeting”, or estimating profitability of an enterprise, is an important process. Budgeting is often described as “penciling it out” before committing resources to a plan. Ohio State University Extension has had a long history of providing “Enterprise Budgets” that can be used as a starting point for producers in their budgeting process.
Newly updated Enterprise Budgets for 2007 have been completed and posted to the Farm Management Website of the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics. Updated Enterprise Budgets have been published for the following field crops: Corn-Conservation Tillage, 2 nd Year Corn-Conservation Tillage, Soybeans-No-Till (Roundup Ready), Wheat-Conservation Tillage-Wheat and Straw Harvested, Alfalfa Hay and Grass Hay-Large Bale System.
These updated Crop Budgets are available at:
http://aede.osu.edu/Programs/FarmManagement/Budgets/crops-2007/
Our enterprise budgets are compiled on downloadable Excel Spreadsheets that contain macros for ease of use. Users can input their own production and price levels to calculate their own numbers. These Enterprise Budgets have a new look with color coded cells that will enable users to plug in numbers to easily calculate bottoms lines for different scenarios. Detailed footnotes are included to help explain methodologies used to obtain the budget numbers.
This year’s Crop Enterprise Budgets assume nitrogen costs of 24.4 cents per pound of actual N and $2.20 per gallon for off-road diesel.
The entire set of Enterprise Budgets can be accessed at: