The Custom Rate Guide is a summary from a mail survey which collected rates paid by Wisconsin farmers who hired custom work, custom operators and farmers who performed custom work, and machinery dealers who rented out equipment for field operations including manure services, tillage, planting, fertilizer & chemical application, harvest operations, and machinery rental.
Non-irrigated cropland rent averaged $133.00 per acre in Wisconsin during 2021, a decrease of $5.00 from 2020 according to the latest report released by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Cash rent paid for pasture in Wisconsin averaged $37.00 per acre in 2021, an increase of $2.00 from 2020.
Lafayette County had the highest published average cash rent for non-irrigated cropland, at $214.00 per acre, followed by Grant County, at $210.00 per acre.
The highest published pasture cash rent was $61.00 per acre in Lafayette County and Rock County. Manitowoc, Racine, and Dane were the only other counties above $50.00 per acre. Full Report: Cash Rental Value by County, WI Agriculture Statistics Service 2021
Full Report: Cash Rental Values by County, WI Agriculture Statistics Services 2020
Ag Lease 101 helps both land owners and land operators learn about alternative lease arrangements and includes sample written lease agreements for several alternatives. Ag Lease 101 was created by and is maintained by the North Central Farm Management Extension Committee.
The enterprise budget is a means to analyze the profitability of a particular enterprise. Basic spreadsheets for dairy, livestock, field crops, pasture, commercial and fresh market vegetables, allow a user to view an example budget, and/or enter their own farm numbers
Benchmarks allow a producer to measure their production or financial performance against others of similar management or scale.
Dairy Enterprise Budgets
This enterprise budget is a means to analyze the profitability of a particular enterprise. This enterprise budget is intended to analyze a dairy budget, per cow over three levels of production. It includes a machinery and building cost calculator, feed cost calculator and sensitivity analysis.
Dairy Sheep Enterprise Budget
The UW Center for Integrated Agriculture spreadsheet to help farmers make financial and management decisions about new or existing dairy sheep enterprises. It is applicable to most kinds and sizes of enterprises.
Dairy Goat Enterprise Budget
The UW Center for Integrated Agriculture spreadsheet to help farmers make financial and management decisions about new or existing dairy goat enterprises. It is applicable to most kinds and sizes of enterprises.
WI Dairy Farm Ratio Benchmarking Tool
Compares dairy farm’s financial status with +500 dairy farms in the State of Wisconsin. Data is from the AgFA (Agriculture Financial Advisor) database: 2000-2008. Calculates 15 Financial measures. REQUIRES: Excel 2007.
Crop Budget-Analyzer
The Crop Budget Analyzer reflects updates to crop production inputs for corn, soybean, alfalfa, and small grains) including fertilizer, pesticide products and application, and (custom rates reflected in the 2020 Custom Rate Guide).
The Custom Rate Guide is a summary from a mail survey that collected rates paid by Wisconsin farmers who hired custom work, custom operators and farmers who performed custom work, and machinery dealers who rented out equipment for field operations including manure services, tillage, planting, fertilizer & chemical application, harvest operations, and machinery rental. Data is compiled by the USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS), Wisconsin Field Office in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Extension.
Whole-Farm Profit Management tools
The Compass Tools are free downloadable spreadsheets created at the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, University of Wisconsin-Madison. These tools help farmers actively manage for increased farm profits by helping them understand their cost of production, by product and by market channel. This enables farmers to make strategic decisions to adjust prices, reduce costs, shift market channel focus, reduce or drop unprofitable products, and expand the production of their most profitable ventures.
Pasture budgets
Spreadsheets allow farms to compare their costs to an example farm budget for established pasture and pasture establishment, with round bales, or wrapped round bales. The budget includes sensitivity analysis and machinery expenses.
Extension Beef Replacement Heifer Cost Spreadsheet (xls) 12-04-20
The Beef Replacement Heifer spreadsheet tool is designed to help producers calculate their cost of raising replacement heifers from weaning to calving. It calculates costs from weaning until the group of heifers calve into the cow-calf enterprise. It provides farmers with information for benchmarking and making informed management decisions for raising replacement heifers, and making decisions to retain ownership of calves versus purchasing replacements.
Extension Stocker Cattle Closeout Spreadsheet (xls) 11-01-20
The Beef Stocker Closeout spreadsheet is designed to help producers who graze stocker calves (weaned calves on pasture) calculate their cost of production and determine profit or loss for each group of stocker calves. It is intended to be used after a group of calves is marketed to evaluate performance and profitability of that group. It provides farmers with information for benchmarking and making informed management decisions for the stocker enterprise.
Stocker Spreadsheet Instructional Video on YouTube
Extension Herd Size Growth Evaluator (xls) 07-15-19
The Herd Size Growth Evaluator spreadsheet is designed to help beef cow calf producers estimate herd size changes based upon heifer retention rate, purchase of replacements females, and herd culling rate. Users have the option to project future herd growth based upon percent of the herd, or on a per head basis. It provides farmers with information for making informed beef cow calf herd management decisions.
Extension Feedlot Closeout Spreadsheet (xls) 03-17-21
The Feedlot Closeout spreadsheet is designed to help producers calculate their cost of production and determine profit or loss for a group of cattle they have fed out, or backgrounded in a drylot management system. It is intended to be used after a group of calves is marketed to evaluate performance and profitability of that group. It provides farmers with information for benchmarking and making informed management decisions for the feedlot enterprise.
Extension Stocker Enterprise Budget (xls) 02-01-17
The Beef Stocker Enterprise spreadsheet is designed to help producers who graze stocker calves (weaned calves on pasture) to project their cost of production, profit or loss, and breakeven prices for stocker calves on a per head basis. It is intended to be used before a group of calves is purchased (or ownership retained) to budget for that group. It provides farmers with information for making informed management decisions for the stocker enterprise.
Extension Cow-Calf Enterprise Budget (xls) 12-30-2021
The Cow-Calf Enterprise spreadsheet is designed to help producers calculate profit or loss, both past actuals and future projections, for a beef cow calf enterprise. It is intended to be used for annual budgeting, and to project herd performance, profitability, and breakeven prices. It provides farmers with information for making informed management decisions for the cow calf enterprise.
Yardage Calculator (xls) 04-29-19
The Yardage Calculator spreadsheet is used to calculate yardage costs for the feedlot enterprise. Users input information to calculate their overhead costs; which include equipment and facility leases, equipment and facility depreciation, labor, and related operational costs excluding feed and cattle values. It provides users with the feedlot’s yardage expense per head, per day for making informed decisions regarding feedlot management.
Extension Feedlot Enterprise Budget Spreadsheet(xls) updated 07-29-20
The Feedlot Enterprise spreadsheet is designed to help producers calculate profit or loss projections for a group of cattle they have on feed, or plan to purchase and place on feed on a per head basis. It is intended to be used before a group of calves is placed on feed (purchased or retained ownership) to project thier performance, profitability, and breakeven prices. It provides farmers with information for making informed management decisions for the feedlot enterprise.
Grass Fed Enterprise Budget xls– courtesy of Jim Munsch
Forage Inventory Tool – The forage inventory and needs tool helps farmers determine baled and ensiled forage inventories and forage needs and helps determine if there are shortages or surpluses of various forages. It is comprised of a set of complimentary spreadsheet tools that assist with estimating various baled forage inventories and tools to calculate silage inventories in commonly used storage structures. Forage needs are determined by entering in planned ration information for the herd through the forage feeding season. It also includes an intake estimator that will provide an estimated daily intake if a forage is provided free choice to animals.
Feed Cost Comparison for Protein and Energy (xlsx) 11-02-18 The Feed Cost Comparison spreadsheet aids producers in comparing prices for multiple feedstuffs based on Crude Protein and TDN (energy). Corn is used as the benchmark energy feedstuff, and 44% Soybean Meal as the protein benchmark. Feeds are ranked by color coding by the spreadsheet relative to each other on prices based on user inputs, as Green (good $ value), Yellow (middle range) or Red (poorer $ value). It provides farmers with information for making informed decisions to formulate their most economical ration.
Hay Corn Substitution Calculator for Beef Cow Winter Rations (xls) The Hay Corn Substitution Calculator aids in determining a comparative $ value of the TDN (energy) value of hay compared to a range of corn prices. It is used for determining if it is economical to substitute some hay feeding with corn for the beef cow calf herd. This can be of importance when hay supplies are short, hay prices are high, and / or corn prices are comparatively low.
Pricing Standing Small Grains (xls) This Decision Aid is used to determine a fair price for buying or selling standing small grain for forage. Crop input expenses for growing the crop, harvest costs, and market value of the feed are input by the user to calculate price ranges for buying or selling.
Pricing Standing Hay (xls) This Decision Aid is used to determine a fair price for buying or selling standing perennial forage crops. Crop input expenses for growing the crop, harvest costs, and market value of the feed are input by the user to calculate price ranges for buying or selling.
Estimating Hay Usage Calculator (xls) spreadsheet helps estimate winter hay needs, a new version will be released later this year.
Corn Silage Pricing Decision Aid (xls) updated 8-19-2021 The Corn Silage Pricing Decision Aid is used to help determine a fair price when buying or selling corn silage. Estimated yield per acre, differences in silage vs. Grain harvest costs, value of crop nutrients removed with silage vs. Grain harvest, and comparative feed market values (corn grain and poor quality hay / straw) are included in the calculations.
Corn Silage Pricing App (android) Both the aAndroid and Apple version of the Corn Silage Pricing App are used to help determine a fair price when buying or selling corn silage. It’s based off the Corn Silage Pricing Decision Aid Excel spreadsheet. The app includes links to current corn and hay market prices and allows buyers and sellers to enter their own yield estimates and harvest costs. The difference in value of soil nutrients removed when harvesting silage versus corn for grain is also calculated helping sellers fine tune their standing value per acre. The app is free.
Pricing Corn Silage (Apple iOS)
Pricing Wet Corn App (android) Determining the value of wet shell corn is important to farmers when making marketing and management decisions like buying, selling, feeding, drying and storage. The app quickly calculates a value for wet shell corn based on kernel moisture and price for local dry shell corn (a direct link to local elevator dry corn bid prices is included with the app). The equivalent wet corn price is then calculated in both price per ton and price per bushel. Additional costs for drying and/or shelling can be evaluated entering those input costs under the expense tab.
Pricing Standing Hay (android) Both the Android and Apple versions of this app provides easy access to current hay price information for the Midwest. The app quickly calculates a standing value per acre for each cutting, as well as the entire growing season, based on individual yield and harvest cost estimates.
Pricing Standing Hay (Apple iOS)
Freezer Beef Pricing Worksheet (xls) This spreadsheet is intended to help buyers and sellers determine sale prices for direct marketing wholes, haves, or quarters of grain fed beef animals. This spreadsheet can be utilized to calculate estimated returns for beef producers, as well as for beef producers to communicate with their buyers on the economics of purchasing beef direct from farm.
Freezer Beef Pricing Worksheet YouTube Instructional Video
UW Extension Holstein Steer Yardage Summary (pdf) This whitepaper presents survey results on the yardage costs associated with raising Holstein steers (overhead, labor, management, bedding, etc.) in Wisconsin. Yardage does not include feed, veterinary, or purchase costs for cattle. Yardage is often an overlooked aspect of raising steers, but important for operators to account for.
UMN Beef Cow Ration Balancer (xls) recommend that you down load after it opens in the google docs view window before using rather than open in google docs.
Beef Basis Risk Management Tools
Virginia Cooperative Extension Budget Spreadsheets
FINBIN
A source for farm financial and production benchmark information, detailed reports on whole farm, crop, and livestock financials.
FINBIN is one of the largest and most accessible sources of farm financial and production benchmark information in the world. FINBIN places detailed reports on whole farm, crop, and livestock financials at your fingertips.
Established Pasture Budget with Round Bales
Established Pasture Budget with Wrapped Round Bales
Fresh market vegetable returns can vary, sometimes considerably, by region, farm, and marketing situation. These budgets are best used as a “side-by-side” comparison tool to analyze financial costs and benefits for producing different fresh market vegetables.
Since there is no estimate of business overhead included in the budgets, users of the budgets should consider the expenses for office supplies, telephones, accounting, legal fees, business trips, income taxes, and liability insurance.
The hardest part about lease negotiations is starting one. There may be lots of questions that both the landowner and farmer have as they navigate through the conversation. According to the Farm Commons article called “A checklist of questions to address in your farmland lease” the best lease between farmer and landowner is a lease […]
This report provides a statewide overview of agricultural land values across Wisconsin based on a statistical analysis of actual sales and now includes the weighted average price of agricultural land sold in Wisconsin.
Host Katie Wantoch and Ryan Sterry, Professor and Agriculture Agent with Extension in St. Croix County, discuss considerations for renting land from a family member and details that should be included with a written lease agreement.
In this 2013 podcast, Phil Harris, UW-Extension Farm Law Specialist at UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences discusses livestock owners’ responsibility for fencing.
This provides a summary of what is covered in the full-text publication, “Fixed and Flexible Cash Rental Arrangements for Your Farm” located in the AgLease 101 document library aglease101.org – a publication to help operators and landowners develop equitable cash-rent arrangements and assist them in making sound decisions based on an equitable evaluation of resources. […]
This provides a summary of what is covered in the full-text publication, “Pasture Rental Arrangement for Your Farm” located in the AgLease 101 document library Aglease101.org – a publication to help operators and landowners develop equitable rental arrangements and assist them in making sound decisions based on an equitable evaluation of resources. Details on how […]
This provides a summary of what is covered in the full-text publication, “Rental Agreements for Farm Buildings and Livestock Facilities” located in the AgLease 101 document library Aglease101.org – a publication to help operators and landowners develop equitable rental arrangements and assist them in making sound decisions based on an equitable evaluation of resources. This […]
This provides a summary of what is covered in the full-text publication, “Crop Share Rental Arrangements for Your Farm” located in the AgLease 101 document library aglease101.org – a publication to help operators and landowners develop equitable rental arrangements and assist them in making sound decisions based on an equitable evaluation of resources. Crop-share arrangements […]
Host Katie Wantoch and Ryan Sterry, Professor and Agriculture Agent with Extension in St. Croix County, discuss items to consider when renting additional farmland along with completing an enterprise budget.
Host Katie Wantoch and Ben Jenkins, Agriculture Extension educator in Green Lake County, discuss a farmer and his son who are considering buying a new chopper and how to cash flow this purchase.
Tools are available to help corn growers and dairy and livestock producers negotiate a fair price for corn silage.
The landlord and tenant need to discuss improvements and repairs of the property before the lease begins. There is no right answer as to who should pay for what. A written lease detailing the responsibility of each party and agreeing to these items ahead of time will make the landlord-tenant relationship less troublesome.
Leases play an important role for over 22,600 farms in the state. Yet many farm landlords and tenants are unfamiliar with the components of a lease and the landlord/tenant relationship.
This report provides a statewide overview of agricultural land values across Wisconsin based on a statistical analysis of actual sales and now includes the weighted average price of agricultural land sold in Wisconsin.
The Manure Value Calculator spreadsheet is available to calculate the value of manure nutrients.
Host Katie Wantoch and Simon Jette-Nantel, former Professor at UW-River Falls and Extension Farm Management Specialist, discuss whether a farmer should offer to rent his neighbor’s farm land and at what rental rate.
Host Katie Wantoch and Simon Jette Nantel, Professor at UW-River Falls and Extension Farm Management Specialist, discuss if a farmer should offer a lower rental rate per acre to the neighbor who is retiring from farming.
Determining a rental rate is not an exact science. Local demand and supply conditions, anticipated market conditions, and long-standing working relationships can have bearing on rental rate negotiations. Learn what factors to consider when setting a rental rate.
