You've reached the Virginia Cooperative Extension Newsletter Archive. These files cover more than ten years of newsletters posted on our old website (through April/May 2009), and are provided for historical purposes only. As such, they may contain out-of-date references and broken links.

To see our latest newsletters and current information, visit our website at http://www.ext.vt.edu/news/.

Newsletter Archive index: http://sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/

Virginia Cooperative Extension -
 Knowledge for the CommonWealth

New Crop Budgets on VCE Website

Farm Business Management Update, August - September 2007

By Eric Eberly (eeberly@vt.edu) Extension Agent, Farm Business Management

The 2007 Virginia Crop budgets are now on the Virginia Cooperative Extension World Wide Web site.  The 58 crop budgets and related information files are available in spreadsheet interactive version Microsoft Excel® and in a static version via Adobe® PDF format.  Electronic copies of the budgets can be viewed and/or downloaded by going to the site http://www.ext.vt.edu/, select "Educational Programs & Resources," on the next page, select "Farm Business Management & Marketing" and finally selecting "Budgets" from the list of resources.  Budgets for cotton, tobacco, peanuts, and canola have been added to the list (see Table 2 for a listing of all the 2007 Crop Budgets).  A few of the new features of crop budgets are discussed below. 

Nutrient removal: The quantity of nutrients (N, P, K) listed on a budget are linked to the expected yield.  The quantity listed is based on nutrient removal of this yield plus an additional 30 percent to cover variability.   Actual quantity applied in the column labeled “soil test recommendation” takes precedence over the calculated quantity in determining cost as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Example fertilizer section – Crop budget


  FERTILIZER

Soil Test Recommendation

Quantity

Price

Total

    NITROGEN

 100

LBS

86.00

$0.38

$38.00

    PHOSPHATE

 

LBS

50.00

$0.32

$16.00

    POTASH

 

LBS

33.00

$0.26

$8.58

Fuel Costs: Total fuel costs are calculated based on tractors and equipment compliment used.  The unpredictable price of diesel fuel has made published projections less reliable.  The term “equivalent gallons” is used to cover both fuel and lubricants when the cost of diesel fuel is backed out of the equation.  Users should enter the current diesel fuel price to determine the total costs of fuel, oil, and lubricants.

Cell comments: Comments have been added to individual cells (Figures 1 and 2) to assist you in entering numbers or determining where the numbers came from.  The comments feature in Excel (Figure 3) will need to be selected (turned on) if comments are not visible.  This feature should be deselected (turned off) if the pop-up comments become annoying.

Figures 1,2 and 3

Table 2: Listing of 2007 Crop Budgets

Budget Category

Individual Crop Budget Titles

Alfalfa Hay

Alfalfa Hay -- Conventional Establishment
Alfalfa Hay -- No-Till Establishment
Alfalfa Hay
Alfalfa Haylage -- 50% Dry Matter

Annual Pasture and Hay

Pearl Millet for Summer Grazing -- No Till Establishment
Sorghum-Sudangrass for Hay -- No Till Establishment

Corn Grain

Corn Grain Conventional Tillage, 80 Bu 
Corn Grain Conventional Tillage, 100 Bu 
Corn Grain Conventional Tillage, 125 Bu 
Corn Grain Conventional Tillage, 150 Bu
Corn Grain Minimum Tillage, 88 Bu 
Corn Grain Minimum Tillage, 110 Bu 
Corn Grain Minimum Tillage, 135 Bu 
Corn Grain Minimum Tillage, 160 Bu

Corn Silage

Corn Silage Conventional Tillage, 14 Ton 
Corn Silage Conventional Tillage, 16 Ton 
Corn Silage Conventional Tillage, 18 Ton 
Corn Silage Conventional Tillage, 20 Ton 
Corn Silage Minimum Tillage, 15 Ton 
Corn Silage Minimum Tillage, 17 Ton 
Corn Silage Minimum Tillage, 19 Ton 
Corn Silage Minimum Tillage, 21 Ton 

Cotton

Cotton Roundup Ready Conventional Tillage
Cotton Roundup Ready Strip Tillage
Cotton Roundup Ready Flex Strip Tillage
Cotton Boll Guard Conventional Tillage
Cotton Boll Guard Roundup Ready Strip Tillage
Cotton Boll Guard 2 Roundup Ready Flex Strip Tillage

Data Files

2007 Machinery/implements Costs per acre
2007 Tractor and Machinery Combinations Costs per Acre
2007 Tractor Costs per Hour (Excludes Labor)
Tractor Costs Estimator per hour (Excludes labor)
2007 Estimated Farm Chemical Prices
2007 Seed and Plant Prices

Fescue Pasture and Hay

Pasture Maintenance
Fescue-Clover Pasture Conventional Establishment
Fescue-Clover Pasture No-Till Establishment
Stockpiled Fescue
Stockpiled Fescue Pasture with 1.5 Ton Hay Cutting

Grain Sorghum and Grain Sorghum Silage

Grain Sorghum Silage Minimum Tillage, 12 Ton Yield
Grain Sorghum Minimum Tillage, 80 Bushel Yield
Grain Sorghum Silage Minimum Tillage, 12 Ton
Grain Sorghum Minimum Tillage, 80 Bu.

Grass-Clover Hay

Orchardgrass Red Clover - Conventional Establishment
Orchardgrass Red Clover - No Till Establishment
Orchardgrass Red Clover Hay
Timothy -- Conventional Establishment
Timothy Hay

Peanut

Peanuts - Conventional
Peanuts - Strip-Tilled
Peanuts - Runner
Peanuts - Strip-Tilled – Runner

Silage and Double Crop

Corn Silage, Barley Silage Double Crop
Soybeans, Barley Silage Double Crop
Barley Grain, Soybeans Double Cropped
Wheat Grain, Soybeans Double Crop  

Small Grain, Canola, and Straw

Barley Grain (Following Corn Silage)
Barley Grain (Intensive Management)
Canola for Grain
Wheat Grain (Following Corn Silage)
Wheat Grain (Intensive Management)
Straw 

Soybean

Soybeans -- Full Season, Conventional Till 30 Bu
Soybeans -- Full Season, Conventional Till 40 Bu
Soybeans -- Roundup Ready, Minimum Till 30 BU
Soybeans -- Roundup Ready, Minimum Till 40 Bu

Tobacco

Flue-Cured Tobacco, Irrigated, 2500 Lbs. 
Dark-Fired Tobacco, 1750 Lbs. 
Burley Tobacco, Contract, 2000 Lbs. 
Burley Tobacco, Contract, Southern Piedmont, 2000 Lbs

Warm Season Pasture and Hay

Bluestem Conventional Establishment
Bluestem No-Till Establishment
Switchgrass Conventional Establshment
Switchgrass No-Till Establishment
Warm Season Grass Hay
Warm Season Pasture Maintenance 

 

Nutrient Removal by Crops in North Carolina.  North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.  Publication AG-439-16 March 1991 (TMD) Last Web Update: December 1997 (DBL).  http://www.soil.ncsu.edu/publications/Soilfacts/AG-439-16/

 

 

Visit Virginia Cooperative Extension