Free Excel template · Excel for farms and growers

Free crop budget and break-even template

For farmers planning a crop and lenders or partners who want to see the numbers. Enter your acres, expected yield and price, and your costs per acre, and the template shows the whole-field cost, cost per bushel (or pound), net return, the break-even price and yield, and how far price could fall before you lose money. A small table shows what a short or bumper crop does to break-even.

cellwise-crop-budget-break-even.xlsxExcel workbook · 4.7 KB · works in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice · no signup

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Preview and try it

This is the template's sheet, calculated by the same engine as the Cellwise app. Change any number to see the formulas react before you download.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Crop budget and break-even (per acre)
2	Crop	Soybeans
3	Acres	80
4	Expected yield per acre	55
5	Unit	bu
6	Expected price per unit	10.4
7
8	Cost item	Per acre	Whole field	Per unit	Share of cost
9	Seed	62	4960	1.13	0.11502782931
10	Fertilizer and lime	38	3040	0.69	0.070500927644
11	Herbicide and crop protection	46	3680	0.84	0.0853432282
12	Crop insurance	18	1440	0.33	0.033395176252
13	Fuel, oil and repairs	34	2720	0.62	0.063079777365
14	Custom hire and trucking	22	1760	0.4	0.040816326531
15	Drying and storage	9	720	0.16	0.016697588126
16	Interest on operating money	14	1120	0.25	0.025974025974
17	Land rent (or land cost)	210	16800	3.82	0.38961038961
18	Machinery ownership	58	4640	1.05	0.10760667904
19	Hired labor	16	1280	0.29	0.029684601113
20	Other	12	960	0.22	0.022263450835

How the formulas work

Cost per unit for each line

D9=IF($B$4>0,ROUND(B9/$B$4,2),0)

Each cost per acre divided by expected yield per acre. Seed at $62 an acre on 55 bushels is $1.13 a bushel. Seeing costs per unit next to the price makes it clear which lines matter: land rent here is $3.82 of every bushel.

Break-even price

B25=IF(B4>0,ROUND(B21/B4,2),0)

Total cost per acre divided by expected yield: the price you need just to cover everything. At $539 an acre and 55 bushels, that is $9.80. Compare it with forward contract prices before you sell.

Break-even yield

B26=IF(B6>0,ROUND(B21/B6,1),0)

Total cost per acre divided by the price: the yield you need at today's price. $539 / $10.40 is 51.8 bushels, only 3.2 under the 55 you expect, which tells you how little room there is.

Break-even at different yields

C30=IF(B30>0,ROUND($B$21/B30,2),0)

Rows 30 to 33 rerun the break-even price at 80%, 90%, 100% and 110% of expected yield. A 20% shortfall pushes break-even to $12.25, which is why crop insurance and marketing plans are built around yield risk, not just price.

Make it yours

Include land and machinery costs even if you own them. Cash rent you would otherwise collect and the yearly cost of owning equipment are real costs of growing this crop.
Use yields from your own fields over several years, not your best year.
Save one copy per crop and per year. Comparing the break-even price across crops is a quick way to plan rotation and acres.
Extension services publish crop budgets for many regions; use them to check your cost lines, then put in your own numbers.

FAQ

How do I calculate break-even price per bushel?

Divide total cost per acre by expected yield per acre: =total_cost_per_acre/yield_per_acre. A $539 per acre cost at 55 bushels per acre needs $9.80 a bushel to break even.

What is the difference between break-even price and break-even yield?

Break-even price is the price you need at your expected yield. Break-even yield is the yield you need at your expected price: =total_cost_per_acre/price. Together they show how much room you have on each.

Should crop budgets include land rent if I own the land?

Many budgets do, using the rent you could get for it, so you can compare crops fairly and see whether farming the land beats renting it out. Label it so it is clear which costs are cash and which are not.

Functions used

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Updated November 2, 2026