Vegetable cost per acre in Maryland

In today's prices: about $9,631–$10,049 per acre.

• Fertilizer$275
• Lime and amendments$15
• Seed and transplants$760
• Crop protection$164
• Labor$2,275
• Other inputs$1,265
• Overhead$166
• Fixed and land$609

Printed total cost $5,528.54/acre. Variable total $4,919.54 includes 7% interest on operating capital. Fixed costs use custom hire rates as a proxy for field operation costs. 2008 dollars.

University of Maryland Extension enterprise budget EB-371 (2008), by Ben Beale, Shannon Dill and Dale Johnson, built from average yields and estimated input costs from producer and farm supplier data. A planning budget, not a farm survey. The figures are 2008 dollars, so treat them as a floor and use the today's-price range. Open the source.

Open these line items in the calculator →

In today's prices: about $2,305–$2,442 per acre.

• Fertilizer$214
• Lime and amendments$15
• Seed and transplants$115
• Crop protection$74
• Labor$280
• Other inputs$252
• Overhead$33
• Fixed and land$369

Printed total cost $1,351.43/acre. Variable total $982.43 includes 7% interest on operating capital. Fixed costs use custom hire rates as a proxy for field operation costs. 2008 dollars.

University of Maryland Extension enterprise budget EB-371 (2008), by Ben Beale, Shannon Dill and Dale Johnson, built from average yields and estimated input costs from producer and farm supplier data. A planning budget, not a farm survey. The figures are 2008 dollars, so treat them as a floor and use the today's-price range. Open the source.

Open these line items in the calculator →

In today's prices: about $8,467–$8,920 per acre.

• Fertilizer$245
• Lime and amendments$23
• Seed and transplants$890
• Crop protection$309
• Labor$1,400
• Other inputs$1,330
• Overhead$147
• Fixed and land$583

Printed total cost $4,925.22/acre. Variable total $4,342.22 includes 7% interest on operating capital. Fixed costs use custom hire rates as a proxy for field operation costs. 2008 dollars.

University of Maryland Extension enterprise budget EB-371 (2008), by Ben Beale, Shannon Dill and Dale Johnson, built from average yields and estimated input costs from producer and farm supplier data. A planning budget, not a farm survey. The figures are 2008 dollars, so treat them as a floor and use the today's-price range. Open the source.

Open these line items in the calculator →

In today's prices: about $4,099–$4,370 per acre.

• Fertilizer$282
• Lime and amendments$23
• Seed and transplants$334
• Crop protection$301
• Labor$315
• Other inputs$647
• Overhead$67
• Fixed and land$456

Printed total cost $2,423.34/acre. Variable total $1,967.34 includes 7% interest on operating capital. Fixed costs use custom hire rates as a proxy for field operation costs. 2008 dollars.

University of Maryland Extension enterprise budget EB-371 (2008), by Ben Beale, Shannon Dill and Dale Johnson, built from average yields and estimated input costs from producer and farm supplier data. A planning budget, not a farm survey. The figures are 2008 dollars, so treat them as a floor and use the today's-price range. Open the source.

Open these line items in the calculator →

In today's prices: about $4,364–$4,630 per acre.

• Fertilizer$233
• Lime and amendments$23
• Seed and transplants$376
• Crop protection$255
• Labor$490
• Other inputs$588
• Overhead$69
• Fixed and land$531

Printed total cost $2,563.10/acre. Variable total $2,032.10 includes 7% interest on operating capital. Fixed costs use custom hire rates as a proxy for field operation costs. 2008 dollars.

University of Maryland Extension enterprise budget EB-371 (2008), by Ben Beale, Shannon Dill and Dale Johnson, built from average yields and estimated input costs from producer and farm supplier data. A planning budget, not a farm survey. The figures are 2008 dollars, so treat them as a floor and use the today's-price range. Open the source.

Open these line items in the calculator →

In today's prices: about $7,674–$8,041 per acre.

• Fertilizer$399
• Lime and amendments$23
• Seed and transplants$840
• Crop protection$56
• Labor$1,575
• Other inputs$1,087
• Overhead$139
• Fixed and land$313

Printed total cost $4,431.04/acre. Variable total $4,118.04 includes 7% interest on operating capital. At the budget's own price and yield this crop shows a $431/acre loss — the document says so itself. Fixed costs use custom hire rates as a proxy for field operation costs. 2008 dollars.

University of Maryland Extension enterprise budget EB-371 (2008), by Ben Beale, Shannon Dill and Dale Johnson, built from average yields and estimated input costs from producer and farm supplier data. A planning budget, not a farm survey. The figures are 2008 dollars, so treat them as a floor and use the today's-price range. Open the source.

Open these line items in the calculator →

$4,940 per acre

All vegetables, melons and potatoes sold in the state, divided by the acres harvested for sale, 2022. This is sales, not cost — compare it with the budgets above.

Source: USDA 2022 Census of Agriculture, Table 1 state highlights (vegetables, melons, potatoes and sweet potatoes: value of sales / acres harvested for sale, 2022).

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 Maryland 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.