Cost of Production Spreadsheets

[tweety]

A great set of Excel spreadsheets for cost of production for all farming practices.

http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/business-and-economics/financial-management/cost-of-production.html#crops-and-forage

[freewheat]

I just make up my own set every year. I know formulating, and so it is pretty easy to plug in the numbers.

[LEP]

I have my own as well. I do my preseeding budget and adjust to actuals after harvest and have used a similiar system for 17 years. You get really good info over that length of time.

I used to seed 5 crops and what I found was that it was the same three winners on my farm year after year. Now I only grow three, with the odd wild card thrown in from year to year.

The moral of the story is find a system and get familiar with it.

You will make better decisions.

[SASKFARMER3]

Are you kidding!
What planet most farmers have their own or even a couple at their office computer!

[SASKFARMER3]

My point tweedy! Farmers aren't as stupid as you think! We're all doing exactly what your hinting!
Have a great big wonderful day from your office!

[jamesb]

Sask ag has similar to the Manitoba site. I find these of some value to benchmark some of my costs against others ideas.

[fjlip]

Ag Expert Analyst and Field Manager Pro, easy COP fine tuned to what you think is fair.

[freewheat]

James, I find it amazing what some apparently spend on their crops when I look at those sites. I always second guess my costs when I see what an average for non cash, and even some of the basic input costs are.

[tweety]

Hey SF3, just posting a site for info. No need for the dickhead comments.

Good formulas on depreciation etc you may want to incorporate in to your own sheets.

I wrote my own accounting software in SQL server and .net C#. Always nice to see what others are doing.

FCC Agexpert has a great demo download too.

[charliep]

Here is Alberta's version of a cost of production worksheet with some wrinkles around analysing risk/scenario analysis.

[URL="http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/softdown.nsf/main?openform&type=CropChoice$&page=information"]Crop Choice[/URL]

As indicated by others, an alternative. Pick the one that works best for you.

[SASKFARMER3]

All provinces have excellent spread sheets and even some grain company ones are ok. Every farmer should know their costs down to liter of oil.
Their all good find one that works for you.
But remember its like your goals readjust as the year goes. If its wet some stuff is a waste. If it doesn't rain why put on fungicide etc. If its hailed out take another road to town.

[charliep]

I think we have had this discussion over time but do most of you just look at a cost/acre or do some of you break down to a cost/bushel produced. I realize the yield is very uncertain but should be a comfortable forecast based on your yield and adjusted for moisture conditions. If you want to be conservative, use a crop insurance area average.

[freewheat]

Charlie P, both are useful. Personally, I think in an acre format more, but break it down both ways if needed.

And you are correct. With weather risk, and the nature of farming and yields, all bets are off until it is in the bin. So using bushels BEFORE the crop is harvested, is to me a strange way to look at it, except for basic projections.