The farm
Cropland you can plant this season.
Hours you and your crew can work in the tightest season. Zero means no limit.
Cash and credit for variable costs. Zero means no limit.
Rent or ownership cost; it does not change the plan, only the total.
Crop 1
Bushels, tons or bales; match the price unit.
Cash price at harvest or contract.
Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, drying, insurance; not land.
Hours in the tightest season; zero if labor is not a limit.
Contracted or must-plant acres.
Rotation or market ceiling. Zero means no limit.
Leave zero if you have no plan to compare.
Crop 2
Bushels, tons or bales; match the price unit.
Cash price at harvest or contract.
Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, drying, insurance; not land.
Hours in the tightest season; zero if labor is not a limit.
Contracted or must-plant acres.
Rotation or market ceiling. Zero means no limit.
Leave zero if you have no plan to compare.
Crop 3
Bushels, tons or bales; match the price unit.
Cash price at harvest or contract.
Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, drying, insurance; not land.
Hours in the tightest season; zero if labor is not a limit.
Contracted or must-plant acres.
Rotation or market ceiling. Zero means no limit.
Leave zero if you have no plan to compare.
Crop 4
Bushels, tons or bales; match the price unit.
Cash price at harvest or contract.
Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, drying, insurance; not land.
Hours in the tightest season; zero if labor is not a limit.
Contracted or must-plant acres.
Rotation or market ceiling. Zero means no limit.
Leave zero if you have no plan to compare.
Crop 5
Bushels, tons or bales; match the price unit.
Cash price at harvest or contract.
Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, drying, insurance; not land.
Hours in the tightest season; zero if labor is not a limit.
Contracted or must-plant acres.
Rotation or market ceiling. Zero means no limit.
Leave zero if you have no plan to compare.
Crop 6
Bushels, tons or bales; match the price unit.
Cash price at harvest or contract.
Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, drying, insurance; not land.
Hours in the tightest season; zero if labor is not a limit.
Contracted or must-plant acres.
Rotation or market ceiling. Zero means no limit.
Leave zero if you have no plan to compare.
Leave a crop's yield or price at zero to leave it out.
Result
Questions growers ask
How do I decide how many acres of each crop to plant?
Rank crops by gross margin per acre, then plant the best one until a limit stops you: the acres you have, the labor hours at planting and harvest, the operating capital you can borrow, or a rotation ceiling. When a limit binds, the answer changes, because a crop that earns less per acre can earn more per scarce hour. The tool solves this exactly as a linear program.
What is a shadow price?
It is what one more unit of a limit is worth: one more acre, one more labor hour, or one more dollar of operating capital. If labor shows $150 an hour, hiring help for less than that raises profit; if an acre shows $170, a lease at less than that rent is worth taking.
Why does a crop with a positive margin get zero acres?
Because acres, hours or dollars are better spent elsewhere. The tool shows the margin per acre that crop would need, everything else unchanged, before it earns a place in the plan.
Does it handle crop rotation?
Only through the minimum and maximum acres you set per crop. If soybeans should not exceed 500 acres, enter 500. Agronomic rotation, soil, drainage and field size are yours to judge.
Is this agronomic, financial or insurance advice?
No. It is arithmetic on yields, prices and costs you type. Yield and price risk, crop insurance, government programs, taxes and lender terms vary; check them with a qualified advisor.
Not decided
Whether your yields and prices will hold, yield and price risk, crop insurance, government payments, rotation and soil, field size and timing, machinery and storage limits, taxes and financing. Each crop is treated as one uniform acre with a fixed margin.
Related tools: the fertilizer blend optimizer, the crop insurance coverage calculator and the farmland lease calculator.