Managing input costs

Apr 23, 2015

Tips for farmers to make more while spending less

While different businesses have different business models, there is one strategy that most try to adopt.

Make more money than is spent.

Farmers try to operate like that, too. With all the money they spend on machinery, maintenance and other input costs, they’re trying to make more money on the farm than they spend trying to make it successful – and really, why wouldn’t they?

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) has come up with a long list of methods farmers can try to help minimize their inputs and maximize their profits.

The tips include:

Reducing Soybean Planting Populations
UNL recommended planting soybeans at a rate between 120,000 seeds per acre and 160,000 seeds per acre in 30-inch rows. Based on seed costs averaging between $40 and $65 per bag, that can mean savings ranging from $10.66 to $18.57 per acre. For example, a 200-acre operation, saving $15 per acre would have an extra $3000 on hand.

Share Machinery
Deciding to share all machinery costs with other farmers can have a significant impact on the amount of money saved per year. If two or more farmers agree to split the costs equally, that’s less money each of them have to spend.

Generic vs. Brand Name Herbicides
Everyone likes to have brand name items but sometimes the generic, less-popular item can perform just as well. In the UNL studies, Roundup WeatherMax was selling for about $93/gallon, compared to a generic glyphosate’s $42/gallon.

Join the conversation and tell us some of your methods to manage your input costs. How has it impacted your savings and operations?

Simple practices can help farmers manage their input costs.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.