Crop Budgets For NW North Dakota

For several years Andrew Swenson and Ron Haugen of the NDSU Extension Ag. Economics Department have been providing yearly crop budgets for individual regions of the state. These have provided an estimate of revenues and costs for selected crops grown in the region. They acknowledge there is considerable variation in soil type, productivity, weather conditions, as well as management and production practices within each region.

These profitability budgets account for full economic opportunity costs for lead and machinery investment, regardless of farm operative equity position. The bottom line is the return to labor and managerial efforts required by the crop enterprise.

The budgets typically represent production systems where soil disturbance only occurs at seeding. The market prices are best estimates of NDSU Extension Economists. Market years represent the average for the 7 year period of 2007-2013, after the low and high years are removed. Yields for safflower, yellow mustard, buckwheat, millet, rye and chickpeas are from NDSU Extension Agronomists and industry sources.

Cost of fertilizer applied, based on soil test, to meet a yield goal of 130% of the market yield. The nitrogen (N) fertilizer can be reduced if the previous crop was soybean, dry bean, field peas or lentils.

Fertilizer prices are plugged in as follows: nitrogen - .46/lb; phosphorus - .45/lb and potassium - .38/lb. Machinery investment is calculated at 4.5% real interest rate over the years of machine investment. The average machine investment equals the purchase price plus disposal price divided by two.

Of all the crops included in the northwest region budget only lentils, yellow mustard, safflower, buckwheat, flax, small chickpeas, malting barley and rye come in with a positive return to labor and management. Other crops show losses. These include spring wheat (17.24), durum (7.46), corn grain (3.45), soybeans (8.00), oil sunflower (8.85), canola (19.43), field peas (9.95), oats (44.75) and winter wheat (1.68).

I failed to mention earlier that all budgets are for crops planted on dryland recrop ground. The land charge for all crops was $36.00. This represents the average cash rental rate for the region.

Counties in the northwest regions are Divide, Burke, Mountrail, McKenzie and Williams.

Copies of these budgets will be available during the Wheat Show on February 3 and 4. A copy can also be obtained at this office or by calling 701-577-4595. We will be happy to send one by pony express.

Hands on Presentations

This year’s Wheat Show will close with five short hands-on presentations on a variety of timely topics. These include: “AFS and Telematics – Future Technology for Farmers” by Corrie Nygaard of Border Plains Equipment; “How to Manage the Effects of Scab and Other Durum Wheat Diseases” by Venkat Chapara of the North Central Research Center; “New Durum Varieties” by Shana Pederson of the North Central Experiment Station; “Crop and Soil Salinity” by Chris Augustin of the North Central Experiment Station; and “Market Strategies for High Vomitoxin Durum Wheat” by Daryn Edwards of the Ray Farmers Union Elevator.

Another speaker of great interest will be Kevin Opp who is CEO of Employment USA. He will talk about the H2A Agriculture Foreign Worker Program.

All-in-all, this year’s Wheat Show will feature 23 speakers who will discuss many timely topics. Next week I will share more information about two speakers who will share scientific information on food fads including wheat gluten intolerance.