Crop Budgets

The SDSU Extension Crop Budgets are provided for producers to determine the preliminary cost of production for the major commodities grown in South Dakota.

 

To use the spreadsheet, producers should provide their own costs for the different expense items listed. In the spreadsheet, producers should know their anticipated seeding rate and seed cost, the rate of fertilizer (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, sulfur etc.) that will be applied, and the cost per unit for these items. The same needs to be done for all pesticides (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) that will be used.

 

Other costs that need to be included are: crop insurance, fuel and oil, repairs, custom hire, drying and operation interest rate.

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.