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Crop Insurance Decision Tool
This program calculates premiums, evaluates insurance payments, and provides historical data useful when making crop insurance decisions for multiple crops. Estimates are for crops in midwest and southeast states. Learn…
Farm Projection Tool
This program calculates per-acre budgets for different crops and a whole farm budget and includes breakevens. Projected financial statements and return sensitivities are available. The effects of farm level crop…
Planting Decision Model
With this program, the user can: 1) estimate the costs of planting corn and soybeans by planting date, 2) estimate the net returns from replanting, 3) prevented planting payments, and…
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Conservation & Risk, Part 5: Examining a Risk-Payment Gap for Nitrogen Management
Agricultural conservation policies include assistance for nutrient management. To the extent that this assistance is intended to encourage farmers to reduce application rates for nutrients, such as nitrogen, the policy presents another variation on the conservation-risk challenges examined in this series. This article examines a case study to illustrate the potential costs and risks from reduced nitrogen application alongside the financial assistance available through EQIP.
Enough Room for the Harvest? Grain Storage Pressure in the Corn Belt
US grain storage capacity can in aggregate hold this year’s carry-in stocks and expected harvest, but potential storage demand exceeds capacity in ten of thirteen Corn Belt states. Historically, grain movement during the harvest period relieves this pressure by December, so a 2026 storage crunch is unlikely. Stagnant capacity growth, however, means future bumper crops could strain the US grain handling and transportation system.
Variable Cash Lease Considerations for 2027
The variable lease will result in larger rents during higher crop revenue periods and lower rents during lower crop revenue periods, providing some natural risk protection for the farmer tenant while also providing landowners with upside rent potential under better revenue conditions. However, the high production costs that have persisted since 2023 have resulted in some negative average returns even with the variable lease design.
Liquidity and Repayment Capacity
Previous articles have examined differences in crop machinery investment, crop machinery costs, and labor standards for different sized crop farms (Langemeier, 2025a; Langemeier, 2025b; Langemeier, 2026). This article examines trends…
Detecting Tillage Practices from Space: A New Approach to Monitoring Conservation Agriculture in the US Midwest
From 2014 to 2023, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) invested a total of $133.7 million in no-till and reduce till practices, out of a total of $10 billion in…