Crop Production Budgets, Machinery Costs, and Farm Profitability | MU Extension

In this episode of Tim’s Take, host Tim Reinbott continues the conversation with Andrew Kientzy, Senior Research Analyst with University of Missouri Extension’s Agricultural Business and Policy program. The discussion centers on how MU Extension’s crop production enterprise budgets serve as practical decision-support tools, helping farmers evaluate their own operations in today’s tight economic environment. Rather than prescribing specific strategies, the episode explains how producers can use these budgets to estimate costs for crops like corn, soybeans, wheat, and double-crop systems, while comparing scenarios across regions, input levels, and management approaches. The episode also highlights how enterprise budgets can be used to assess risk, understand fixed and variable cost structures, and evaluate decisions related to land rent, inputs, machinery, and alternative production systems. By allowing producers to plug in their own numbers and assumptions, these tools support better benchmarking, analysis of marginal acres, and more confident financial decision-making. Explore MU Extension enterprise budgets and resources here: https://extension.missouri.edu Andrew Kientzy #2xag2030 #TimsTake #CattleEconomics #MUAg #BeefIndustry #FarmManagement #AgShorts #MissouriFarms Learn more about MU research at the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://moaes.missouri.edu/ #mizzou #moaes #soybean #farming #corn The Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station (MOAES) extends CAFNR research to nearly 14,000 acres across the state to meet regional research and demonstration needs of agricultural producers and natural resource managers. MOAES has a storied history of major impacts in advancing science in agriculture, food and natural resources — locally, nationally and globally. These CAFNR laboratories provide research faculty with a wide variety of real-world conditions to test and develop strategies for agricultural production based on the geographical and climatic differences of our diverse state.