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| good question
seed bought where we wanted to, buying the traits and performance we wanted in a proven brand. below last years price.
fertilizer, giving me heartburn right now. it needs to come down. typically spread ahead of both corn and soy and try to use rates that build slightly even though levels are fine. we will still spread ahead of both crops but plan to pull rates to removal this year if prices do not come down by spread time. currently have not locked prices on any fertilizer. hopefully if they don't come down by spring one of two things happens by the following year, prices go up or fertilizer finally goes down
machinery, only going to spend on things that are in need of replacing or acquisition. this has always been the case even in the good times. if you need it or its on the list to upgrade soon then it gets the nod as long as margins are in the green. frankly machinery if managed right and maintained should be a non event. shiney paint was never "cool" on this operation
fuel, almost all no-till or very minimum till (few acres of COC that are conventional). quick math says we used about 4-4.5 gallons/acre this year. That's everything start to finish including recreation work like skid steer work. All gallons in and out of fuel tank for the year. hard to make that number go much lower, as always we pay attention to $/gallon and if it makes a move lower will lock that in
etc, guess we have already subscribed to the motto that you keep things tight in the good times and bad
just got done putting estimate together for 2015 inputs for seed, chem, fert. Other than fert (ball park and only changes if prices move up from current levels, if they go down that number goes down) these are hard numbers as the deal has been done. $208/ac for corn and $112/ac for soy. not sure how you sharpen the pencil much more than that. | |
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