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Farm Office

Ohio State University Extension

CFAES

Decision Aids

Our tools can help you analyze information for your farm management decisions.

OSU FARM BILL DECISION TOOL

  • Producers again have the option to enroll covered commodities in either ARC-County, ARC-Individual, or PLC.
  • Program elections are made on a crop-by-crop basis unless selecting ARC-Individual where all crops under that FSA Farm Number fall under that program.
  • ARC program payments are made when crop revenue falls below a guaranteed level, while PLC payments are made when a crops specific effective price is lower than its reference price.
  • The established reference prices are: corn $3.70; soybeans $8.40; and wheat $5.50.  Unless we experience significant reductions in yield and/or price, it is unlikely any ARC/PLC payments will be made this year.

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Flexible Cash Lease Calculator - Cash Lease with a Bonus Approach

  • This flexible cash lease tool is intended to help landowners and tenants agree on terms of their flexible cash lease.
  • This Flexible Cash Lease Calculator can assist users in developing a flexible cash rent model.
  • The flexible cash rent approach used in this calculator allows users to compare actual prices, yields and gross income to base prices, yields and gross revenue. The difference between the base and actual gross revenues can be shared in some proportion between landowner and operator and added to the base cash rent.
  • The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is designed to enable the user to input base and year end prices, yields and proportional split to formulate a flex rent at the end of the lease year.

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Flexible Cash Lease Calculator - Net Return Approach

  • This flexible cash lease tool is intended to help landowners and tenants agree on terms of their flexible cash lease.
  • This Flexible Cash Lease Calculator can assist users in developing a flexible cash rent model. Unlike other flexible cash lease calculators, this tool allows the user to incorporate flexible parameters for input costs as well as for price and yield.
  • The flexible cash rent approach used in this calculator allows users to calculate actual net income for rented land and compare it against a base net income. The difference between the base and actual net revenues can be shared in some proportion between landowner and operator and added to the base cash rent.
  • The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is designed to enable the user to input base and year end prices, yields and costs to formulate a flex rent at the end of the lease year.

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Flexible Cash Lease Calculator - Ratio Approach

  • This flexible cash lease tool is intended to help landowners and tenants agree on terms of their flexible cash lease. This Flexible Cash Lease Calculator can assist users in developing a flexible cash rent model. Unlike other flexible cash lease calculators, this tool allows the user to incorporate flexible parameters for input costs as well as for price and yield.
  • The flexible cash rent approach used in this calculator is to multiply the base rent by: 1) the ratio of the Year End Price to Base Price, 2) the ratio of the Year End Yield to Base Yield and, 3) the ratio of the Base Input Costs to Year End Input Costs.
  • The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is designed to enable the user to input base and year end prices, yields and costs to formulate a flex rent at the end of the lease year. There are two tabs for this calculator. Page 1 contains the Flexible Cash Lease Inputs and page 2 contains the Flexible Cash Lease Output.

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Crop Share Calculator

  • The Crop-Share Lease Calculator is a tool designed to allow the user to input costs and shares of each to fairly allocate revenue in a crop share lease arrangement. This tool shows the tenant and landowner returns above total costs given share percentages and costs. This decision aid contains three sections:
  1. Shares -This section separates various receipt and cost sections out so that the user can input the share percentage of that particular item.  Simply input the percentage that the landowner is responsible for and the tenant percentage is automatically generated.
  2. Costs - This section allows the user to input the costs and receipts for the particular crops.
  3. Output -This section separates the sections into 4 broad categories (Receipts, Inputs, Machinery, and Direct Costs) and breaks them down to show the amount (based on the percentages inputted in section 1) that the landowner and the tenant are responsible for.  At the bottom of the sheet, it will show the return to total costs based on the numbers provided.

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The Value of Manure

  • The Value of Manure worksheet shows the amount, and cost/lb unit of N, P, and K in various livestock manure.  Simply select your fertilizer types and type your cost per ton (Yellow cells), and the tool automatically adjusts the value of the manure.

Email Barry Ward for a copy of this Decision Tool.


OSU Manure Rate Calculator

  • The Ohio State University Manure Rate Calculator is a complement to the tool above.  This allows you to select various inputs, and uses to give you a manure rate calculation.  The OSU Manure Rate Calculator was developed by the OSU AgCrops.

Email Barry Ward for a copy of this Decision Tool.


Machinery Rental Rates Calculator

The Machinery Rental Rates Calculator takes user input to determine the recommended rate for renting machinery and equipment.  This allows the user to input current custom rates to calculate rental rates for a given piece of machinery.

Email Barry Ward for a copy of this Decision Tool.


Computer Programs

For assistance, contact Barry Ward - 614-688-3959

LANDBID

A calculation of the maximum amount that can be paid for farmland, while still having a profitable investment.

LandBid Explanation and Instructions (.pdf)

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MACHFIN

An Analysis of Machine Financing Alternatives

MachBuildFin Instructions (.pdf)

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MACHINERY COSTS

An Estimation of the Costs of Operating Farm Equipment

Machinery Costs Explanations and Instructions (.pdf)

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