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2025 Purdue Crop Cost and Return Guide

Summary

The 2025 Purdue Crop Cost and Return Guide, which is available for free download from the Center for Commercial Agriculture website, gives estimated costs for planting, growing, and harvesting a variety of crops, as well as estimated contribution margins and earnings. The guide is updated frequently as grain futures prices change and the costs of inputs, such as seed, fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel, fluctuate. This paper discusses estimates made in early January. The guide presents cost and return information for low, average, and high productivity soils. Table 1 presents crop budget information for low productivity soil. Tables 2 and 3 present crop budget information for average and productivity soils, respectively. The discussion in this paper will focus on the estimates for average productivity soil. Double-crop soybeans are typically planted after wheat, so it is typical to combine the contribution margin for these two crops when comparing to continuous corn, rotation corn, and rotation soybeans. The yield estimates reflect trend yields for Indiana for each crop. The contribution margin for average productivity soil, obtained by subtracting total variable cost from market revenue, ranges from $89 per acre for continuous corn to $263 per acre for wheat/double-crop soybeans. The contribution margins for rotation corn and rotation soybeans on average productivity soil are $173 and $239 per acre, respectively. The contribution margin is used to cover overhead costs such as machinery ownership costs, family and hired labor, and cash rent.