2001 Crop Budgets Available

AUBURN, April 12---Alabama farmers have access to tools to help them run the most profitable operations they can. Max Runge, an agricultural economics associate with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, says crop enterprise budgets developed by Extension can help farmers plan their operations before they ever take a tractor into the field.

"The budgets are designed to assist producers in estimating the potential costs and returns associated with crop production in Alabama," says Runge.

Runge says the 2001 Major Row Crop Budgets, the 2001 Major Forage Crops and the 2001 Catfish Budget are now available on the World Wide Web at the following address:

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/dept/aec/pubs/budgets/.

People who do not have access to the Internet can contact their county Extension office. The budgets are available in a view/print (PDF) format or an Excel spreadsheet.

"The spreadsheet allows the producer to use his/her own inputs, yield and management practices," says Runge. "Each budget has a break-even table for both price and yield for the given cost. In addition, there is a sensitivity table that shows net returns at varying yield and price levels."

The row crop budgets include corn, cotton, soybeans, peanuts, and grain sorghum. There are different budgets for corn and cotton for different regions of the state as well for different tillage methods.

Enterprise budgets for a number of forages are also available. The major forage crop budgets include establishment, grazing and hay budgets for bahiagrass, dallisgrass, hybrid bermudagrass and sericea lespedeza. Alfalfa establishment and hay budgets along with summer annuals for hay and grazing are included. Corn silage budgets for north, central and south Alabama are also available.

One of the benefits to producers with these budgets is that they can look at different "what if" scenarios and see the effects of different actions on their bottom line.

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