Cost per acre calculator

Pick your state and crop to start from a published university budget, line by line. Change any number to match your own farm — your numbers replace theirs.

University of Delaware Bell pepper budget — 2023 — University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, 2023. Open the source. 2023 Delaware budget. Variable total shown includes harvest and packing at the expected yield. Printed total $9,678.25/acre. In today's prices this budget would run about $10,302–$10,742/acre (USDA farm-input price index, 2025 average to August 2026; farm wages brought up separately with USDA's farm wage rates).

Line items per acre
Fertilizer$262
Nitrogen
Phosphorous
Potassium
Boron
Lime and amendments$32
Lime (prorated over 3 years)
Sulfur
Seed and transplants$2,739
Seed
Transplant Production
Crop protection$105
Herbicide -Dual Magnum
Herbicide -Command
Herbicide - Gramoxone
Fungicide-Quintec
Fungicide-Bravo
Fungicide-Kocide
Water and pumping$231
Fixed Irrigation Costs · fixed
Irrigation Operating Costs · fixed
Labor$4,331
Planting Labor
Harvest and packing at expected yield
Fuel and machinery$466
Laying Mulch
Lifting Mulch
Removing Mulch
Mulch Disposal
Applying Fertilizer Broadcast · fixed
Applying Chemicals Ground · fixed
Tillage/Chisel · fixed
Disk & Harrowing · fixed
Transplanter Operation · fixed
Hooded Sprayer · fixed
Other inputs$1,389
Stake (4 ft) prorated over 3 years
String
Plastic Mulch
Insectcide-Sniper
Interest on Variable Costs
Other budget lines not itemized here (reconciles to the published total)
Land and overhead$125
Land Charge · fixed
Your totals
Variable cost / acre$9,169
Fixed cost / acre$510
Total cost / acre$9,678
Total for 1 acre$9,678
Sales / acre$10,000
Left after costs / acre$322
Breakeven price$9.68 per 30-lb crate

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.

Planning several crops? Use the crop profitability planner. Want profit against your state's real sales figures? Open the profit per acre calculator.

Pooled farmer benchmark: Bell pepper in Delaware

Built from real yield records of Delaware farms that chose to share their data. A figure only appears once 5 or more farms have logged the same crop and season, so no single farm can be identified.

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