Cost of production for crops and livestock
Learn about the economics and costs of production for growing crops and raising livestock in Ontario. This technical information is for farm owners and operators.
Overview
Choosing what crops or livestock to produce is an essential decision of any farm business. One critical factor in making that decision is the cost of producing the enterprises being considered.
This is known as enterprise budgeting or cost of production budgeting. Enterprises are a single crop or livestock commodity that produces a marketable product. Cost of production (COP) budgeting consists of estimating the costs associated with an enterprise and the expected revenue.
Production economics
- Budgeting farm machinery costs
- Guide to cost of production budgeting
- Guide to custom farmwork and short-term equipment rental
- Ontario farm financial analysis
- Publication 60: Field Crop Budgets
Establishment and production cost reports
- 2023 Economic report: Establishment and production costs for tender fruit in Ontario
- 2023 Economic report: Establishment and production costs for grapes in Ontario
- 2022 Economic report: Establishment and production costs for berry crops in Ontario
- 2019–2021 Dairy goat cost of production report
- 2018 Economic report: Establishment and production costs for hazelnuts in Ontario
Crops and livestock budgeting
The following commodities have budgets that can be downloaded. The minimum system requirements is Microsoft Excel 2010.
Download Microsoft Excel viewer
Field crops
- Field crop budgets summary
- Timothy-Alfalfa hay
- Premium market hay
- Sorgham-Sudangrass — ensiled
- Fall rye
- Oats and peas
- Feed barley
- Malting barley
- Spring canola — herbicide tolerant
- Coloured beans
- Grain corn
- Grain corn — Non GMO
- Grain corn — no-till
- Silage corn
- Oats
- Soybeans
- Soybeans — no-till
- Soybeans — Roundup Ready
- Soft winter wheat
- Soft winter wheat — no-till
- Switchgrass — direct seeded
- Switchgrass — direct seeded no-till
- Hard red winter wheat
- Hard red winter wheat — no-till
- Hard red spring wheat
- White bean
- Winter canola-hybrid
Berry crops
Organic crops
Specialty crops
Grapes
Livestock
- Beef cow calf
- Beef feedlot
- Dairy
- Dairy goat — 400 doe
- Veal
- Sheep
- Swine
Tree fruit and nut
- High density apples
- Medium density apples
- Apricot
- European blue plum
- Fresh market peach
- Fresh market standard pear
- Fresh market high density pear
- Japanese yellow plum
- Nectarine
- Sour cherry
- Hazelnut