Agriculture · local calculation

Break-Even Cost per Bushel Calculator

Knowing your cost per bushel tells you the price floor you need before you plant. This divides your total production cost by expected yield so you set a realistic marketing target.

Direct answer

What does this tool do?

Break-Even Cost per Bushel Calculator computes the result directly in your browser — Knowing your cost per bushel tells you the price floor you need before you plant. This divides your total production cost by expected yield so you set a realistic marketing target. Nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.

Formula: break-even cost per bushel = total production cost per acre ÷ expected yield (bu/acre). Include ALL costs: seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, machinery, labor, land rent or opportunity cost, and interest. Most farmers add a 5-10% buffer for harvest loss, moisture shrink, and grading discounts. Use: compare the break-even to the forward contract or cash price to decide whether to sell, store, or hedge.

How this calculator works

Formula: break-even cost per bushel = total production cost per acre ÷ expected yield (bu/acre). Include ALL costs: seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, machinery, labor, land rent or opportunity cost, and interest. Most farmers add a 5-10% buffer for harvest loss, moisture shrink, and grading discounts. Use: compare the break-even to the forward contract or cash price to decide whether to sell, st

Worked example

$900/acre of production cost on a 180 bu/acre yield breaks even at $5.00/bushel; after an assumed 10% harvest loss the net break-even is about $4.50/bushel.

How Break-Even Cost per Bushel Calculator is calculated, step by step
Step-by-step: how this break even per bushel calculation builds its result

FAQ

What is a good break-even for corn?

In 2026 examples, Midwest corn break-evens commonly run $4-$5 per bushel at 180-220 bu/acre, depending on land cost. Yours depends entirely on your cost structure.

How do I calculate my cost per acre?

Sum every variable cost (seed, fertilizer, chemicals, fuel) plus fixed costs (machinery, labor, land) for one acre. Divide by expected yield for cost per bushel.

Why add a buffer to break-even?

Harvest losses, moisture shrink at the elevator, and grading discounts reduce your saleable bushels below what you grew. A 10% buffer keeps the number honest.

Figures are editable example defaults for planning, not guarantees. Crop inputs, prices, and moisture handling vary by farm, region, and year — verify with your local extension service and agronomist.

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How land rent moves the number

Take a farm with $1,050 per acre of production cost and a 200 bu/acre expected yield. The base break-even is $1,050 / 200 = $5.25 per bushel. If cash rent is $150 per acre on top of that, total cost is $1,200 and the break-even becomes $1,200 / 200 = $6.00 per bushel. That single line item added $0.75 per bushel.

Now add a 5% buffer for harvest loss and shrink: $5.25 x 1.05 = $5.51, and $6.00 x 1.05 = $6.30. At 200 bu/acre, the rent increase alone means you need $0.79 more per bushel ($6.30 minus $5.51) before the crop pays for itself. On 500 rented acres that is roughly $79,000 of extra bushel revenue needed to reach break-even, which is why comparing your number to the forward contract before locking in rent matters more than any other input.

Where the buffer hides real costs

A flat 10% buffer is a simplification, and moisture is the biggest gap. Corn coming off the field at 20.5% moisture dried to the 15.5% elevator standard loses about 6% of its weight: water shrink is 5 points over 84.5, or roughly 5.9%, plus about 0.5% handling loss. At a $0.04 per point drying charge, that is another $0.20 per bushel in drying cost on top of the bushel loss.

Run it through: if you grew 200 bu/acre at a $5.25 base break-even, a 6% shrink means you sell about 188 saleable bushels per acre, so the true break-even is $1,050 / 188 = about $5.59, plus $0.20 drying, or roughly $5.79. That is more than the 10% buffer predicted in bushel terms but reflects how costs actually hit: shrink multiplies the price you need, while drying is a flat add. Grain sold high-moisture on a moisture-discount schedule, or fed on-farm without drying, skips part of this entirely, which is why the buffer should be set from your elevator's shrink and drying sheet, not a rule of thumb.