Rising Fuel, Input Prices and Tracking Cost of Production with Glennis McClure

Glennis McClure is an extension educator and farm and ranch management analyst in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Commodity prices have risen over the last several months, and so have major input expenses, such as fuel, fertilizer, and even the price of pesticides. When crop prices rise, profits do not always follow incrementally. The whole enterprise picture must be brought into focus, accounting for input price and expense adjustments that may offset gains on the revenue side of the budgets. Staying current with cost of production and breakeven estimates using enterprise budgeting provides information that is useful when making management decisions such as input selection, production considerations or marketing the crop.