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 Cantaloupe 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 $4,256.52/acre. Harvest cost is not split out in this budget; it sits inside the variable total. In today's prices this budget would run about $4,544–$4,821/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$317
Nitrogen
Phosphorous
Potassium
Boron
Lime and amendments$70
Lime (prorated over 3 years)
Sulfur
Seed and transplants$1,084
Seed
Transplant Production
Crop protection$206
Herbicide - Gramaxone
Herbicide - Sandea
Herbicide - Strategy
Fungicide - Bravo
Fungicide - Ranman
Insecticide - Admire
Insecticide - Agri-Mek
Water and pumping$231
Fixed Irrigation Costs · fixed
Irrigation Operating Costs · fixed
Labor$894
Planting Labor
Harvest Labor
Fuel and machinery$509
Removing Mulch
Mulch Disposal
Applying Fertilizer Broadcast · fixed
Applying Chemicals Ground · fixed
Transplanter Operation · fixed
Hooded Sprayer · fixed
Tillage/Chisel · fixed
Disk & Harrowing · fixed
Laying Mulch · fixed
Lifting Mulch · fixed
Mowing Vines · fixed
Other inputs$821
Plastic Mulch
Bee Rental
Interest on Variable Costs
Land and overhead$125
Land Charge · fixed
Your totals
Variable cost / acre$3,517
Fixed cost / acre$740
Total cost / acre$4,257
Total for 1 acre$4,257

Sales / acre$5,500
Left after costs / acre$1,243
Breakeven price$0.85 per melon

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: Cantaloupe 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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