Vegetable cost per acre in Florida
3 published UF/IFAS — Food & Resource Economics budgets for Florida. Every number below is copied from the university's own document — open the source to check it.
Constructing a Southwest Florida Tomato Enterprise Budget (FE1087) · UF/IFAS — Food & Resource Economics
In today's prices: about $22,857–$24,071 per acre.
- Fertilizer$805
- Seed and transplants$640
- Crop protection$2,219
- Labor$5,603
- Fuel and machinery$1,390
- Other inputs$3,415
- Fixed and land$2,791
Cost-only budget: it reports $9.92/carton total cost and does not assume a selling price. 2019/20 input prices.
UF/IFAS representative-operation budget from grower interviews and industry consensus for the 2019/20 season. Explicitly not a statistical average. Open the source.
Constructing a Southwest Florida Bell Peppers Enterprise Budget (FE1088) · UF/IFAS — Food & Resource Economics
In today's prices: about $25,221–$26,771 per acre.
- Fertilizer$1,293
- Seed and transplants$2,465
- Crop protection$2,219
- Labor$4,008
- Fuel and machinery$1,582
- Other inputs$3,314
- Fixed and land$3,519
Cost-only budget: it reports $16.73/carton total cost and does not assume a selling price. 2019/20 input prices.
UF/IFAS representative-operation budget from grower interviews and industry consensus for the 2019/20 season. Explicitly not a statistical average. Open the source.
Watermelon Production Budget for North Florida (FE1104) · UF/IFAS — Food & Resource Economics
In today's prices: about $6,852–$7,122 per acre.
- Fertilizer$284
- Lime and amendments$13
- Seed and transplants$599
- Crop protection$314
- Water and pumping$41
- Labor$2,798
- Fuel and machinery$117
- Other inputs$875
- Fixed and land$518
Harvest and marketing are published as one $2,476/ac block (including $100 food-safety and packinghouse overhead) rather than itemized.
UF/IFAS North Florida representative budget built with regional growers and extension specialists; target yield stated against the 2018–19 statewide average of 36,000–37,000 lb/ac. Open the source.
$6,208 per acre
Crops counted: Bell Peppers, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Snap Beans, Squash, Sweet Corn. This is sales, not cost — compare it with the budgets above.
Source: USDA NASS Vegetables 2024 Summary (released February 2025), state tables vege_all_tables.csv.
| Crop | Acres | Yield (lb/acre) | Price ($/lb) | Sales ($/acre) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Peppers | 11,900 | 27,000 | $0.63 | $16,983 |
| Cabbage | 6,900 | 34,000 | $0.29 | $9,724 |
| Cucumbers | 17,000 | 14,000 | $0.22 | $3,108 |
| Snap Beans | 32,300 | 5,200 | $0.53 | $2,772 |
| Squash | 6,900 | 11,500 | $0.53 | $6,049 |
| Sweet Corn | 45,000 | 13,000 | $0.52 | $6,812 |
| Tomatoes | 23,200 | 27,500 | $0.52 | $14,410 |
Source: USDA NASS Vegetables 2024 Summary, state-by-crop tables (area harvested, yield per acre, price per cwt), 2024. Fresh-market and processing sales combined, as USDA reports them; prices are what growers received.
University budgets are planning budgets: extension economists price a typical acre from grower panels and dealer quotes. They are not surveys of what farms actually spent. Your own invoices are always better.
Older budgets also show a range in today's prices, using the USDA index of prices farmers pay for supplies (2025 average to August 2026). That index leaves out farm wages, so each budget's labor lines are brought up separately using USDA's farm wage rates (newest annual figure: 2025).
We never fill a gap with another state's budget. If Florida has no budget for a crop, the tools show none.
Every figure is transcribed from a published land-grant enterprise budget for that state. These are planning budgets built from grower panels and dealer quotes, not surveys of what farms actually spent — your invoices override them everywhere they exist.
Want to change the numbers for your farm? Open the cost per acre calculator. Other states: North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey.