Crop budget and scenario calculator

How much margin should this cycle leave, and what happens if price, yield or cost turn?

Worked out as an enterprise budget: revenue, less variable cost, less the fixed cost charged to the cycle.

CurrencyHowever you write money in your own books.

Unit of areaHowever you measure land: acre, hectare, field.

Unit of productHowever you measure what you harvest: bushel, tonne, head, liter.

The cycle

Area in this cycleHow many units of area this budget covers. It has to be greater than zero. Example: 120.

Expected yieldHow much you expect to harvest per unit of area, counting only what leaves the gate to be sold. Example: 3.60.

Expected priceWhat you expect to receive per unit of product, after what the buyer holds back. Example: 1,200.

Variable cost per unit of areaEverything you spend per unit of area to carry the cycle through, from ground preparation to harvest. Example: 3,000.

What the structure charges

Fixed cost charged to this cycleOptional. The share of structure cost this cycle carries: land, depreciation, administration, taxes. Write 0 to read the gross margin, with no structure in it. Example: 72,000.

The range of the scenario

How far the price can moveAs a percentage, up and down. It comes from your own price record, not from a hunch. Example: 15.

How far the yield can moveAs a percentage, up and down. It comes from your own recent cycles in the same field. Example: 15.

How far the cost can moveAs a percentage, up and down. It applies to the variable cost; the fixed cost does not move between cases. Example: 15.

The math runs in your browser. We do not send or store anything you type.

Your result

Enter area, yield, price and variable cost to see the margin. With the fixed cost, both floors appear; with the ranges, the three columns appear.

Take the cycle budget in writing

The report carries your figures, the margin with its reading, both floors with the room left, the calculation trail step by step, the three scenario columns and the table of what moves the margin most, in a document you can print and take to the table where the call gets made.

ArticleWhat should this crop leave you when the cycle ends?The margin and the two floors step by step, with the same worked example as this tool, to the number. It shows why one point of price and one point of yield are worth the same money, and why the ranking on screen only becomes a finding after you open up the cost line.Read the full article

Crop budget for the cycle

Your inputs

Your result

Calculation trail

What these numbers say

The margin for the cycle is expected revenue less the variable cost of the whole area and less the fixed cost this cycle carries. The two floors say how far yield and price can fall before revenue meets cost, and the room is the same percentage for both because it is the same arithmetic read from two sides. The three columns show the range you chose, and the last table says which variable moves the margin most per percentage point.

Understand the method in full

The full article shows why one point of price and one point of yield are worth the same money, and why the ranking on screen only becomes a finding after you open up the cost line.

Read the full article

How to read it

A budget is a forecast built on three numbers that have not happened yet, and it is worth what those numbers are worth. The three columns show the range you chose, not the chance of each one: the pessimistic column puts low price, low yield and high cost in the same cycle, which is the worst case and not the likely one. Variable cost is entered per unit of area and does not move with yield, so harvest and freight, which do move, sit outside that swing and the floor comes out a little high. Fill it with your own cycle cost, not with a published budget.

The sources

The margin for a cycle is expected revenue less the variable cost of the whole area and less the fixed cost the cycle carries. Enter area, yield, price and costs, and see the margin, the yield floor and the price floor that cannot be broken, and three cases at the range you pick yourself.

On 120 hectares yielding 3.60 each at 1,200 a unit, with 3,000 of variable cost a hectare and 72,000 of fixed cost, the margin is 86,400, or 720 a hectare, and the floor sits at 3.00 of yield or 1,000 of price, about 16.7 percent of room on either one.

It is the gross-margin method the FAO sets out for costing an activity. One point of price and one point of yield move the margin by the same amount, so what the farm watches is whichever range is widest, not the margin alone, and the tool runs three cases at a range you set yourself.