Do you know your variable costs?

It's all about economics: costs vs. revenues. That, in addition to a sound rotation, is what drives many of us to grow the crops we grow.

Fixed costs are just that - costs that don't really change regardless what crop we crop. Fixed costs are things like land cost, machinery costs, taxes, etc.

For the purposes of this exercise we will leave fixed costs aside and focus on variable costs and gross revenue. The table below contains approximate numbers comparing the variable input costs of soybeans to canola.

Input	Soybean* (cost per acre)	Canola* (cost per acre)
Seed	$63.50	$44.50
Inoculant	$14.00	$0.00
Land Rolling	$5.00	$0.00
Herbicide	$6.50	$11.10
Fertilizer (N)	$0.00	$70.00
Fertilizer (P-K)	$25.00	$25.00
Fungicide	$0.00	$21.50
Swathing	$0.00	$7.00
Total	$114.00	$179.10

Revenue	Soybeans	Canola
Yield	40	40
Price per bushels*	$12.05	$12.45
Gross Revenue	$482.00	$498.00
Net Revenue	$368.00	$318.90

Disclaimer: The tables above are for estimating input costs and revenues only and the figures shown may not accurately reflect your actual input costs or market price. Please use, understanding that NorthStar Genetics Manitoba will not be held responsible for numbers generated using the above tables.