Crop Expenses Drift Lower

Crop production expenses will continue receding next year according to the 2025 crop budget estimates released by the Center for Agriculture Profitability (CAP) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. If true, it will be the second consecutive year expenses have receded. Yet despite the retreat, costs remain much higher relative to a few years ago. The CAP estimates include 83 budgets for 15 different crops and include a variety of tillage practices, crop rotations, seed technologies, chemical applications, and yield goals. Both cash costs and economic costs are included. Cash costs do not include the ownership cost of machinery and equipment or the real estate opportunity cost when land is owned. Economic costs include the opportunity cost of land and equipment and depreciation costs.

Figure 2 compares the estimated per bushel costs for dryland and irrigated corn, soybeans, and wheat for 2025 with the estimates for 2024. Apart from irrigated soybeans, costs have drifted lower at both the low and high end of the ranges. The low end of the range for irrigated soybeans stayed the same as last year at $10.04 per bushel. The budgets and more information on the assumptions underlying them can be found at: www.cap.unl.edu/budgets. The 2025 budgets have also been entered into the Ag Budget Calculator (ABC) program which can be found at: agbudget.unl.edu.

While the estimates suggest crop production expenses will moderate next year, crop prices will likely be lower too. The latest estimates from the USDA call for season average prices of $4.10 and $10.80 per bushel for corn and soybeans, respectively, for the crop marketing year which runs through August 2025. At these price levels, positive returns may be difficult to come by next year.

FIGURE 2. ESTIMATED PER BUSHEL PRODUCTION COSTS

Source: 2025 Crop Budgets, Dept. of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln