BAU Rotation Intelligence

Build a real three-year rotation

Pick a crop for each of the next three years and BAU prices the whole rotation from the published enterprise budget for your state — cost lines by stage, revenue at the budget's own assumed price, profit per acre, plant-family conflicts, and the deepest your checkbook goes before the crop pays for itself.

NC State Extension — Agricultural & Resource Economics

Revenue
$239,800
Cost
$199,449
Profit over 3 years
$40,352
Deepest cash need
$46,201

2026Staked tomato (NC)

10 acres · Nightshade (tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato)
Revenue
$193,200
Cost
$171,341
Profit
$21,859
Profit / acre
$2,186

42,000 lb/ac × $0.46/lb = $19,320/ac (the budget's own yield and price assumption)

$17,134/ac of operating cost ÷ the price above = 37,248 lb/ac just to cover cash costs

preplant
$17,220
$1,722/ac
growing
$46,201
$4,620/ac
harvest
$72,877
$7,288/ac
marketing
$25,200
$2,520/ac
finance
$9,843
$984/ac

Source: Vine Ripe Tomato Budget — 2025 — NC State Extension — Agricultural & Resource Economics, 2025

2027Sweetpotato (NC)

10 acres · Morning-glory family (sweetpotato)
Revenue
$46,600
Cost
$27,458
Profit
$19,142
Profit / acre
$1,914

400 50-lb bushel/ac × $11.65/50-lb bushel = $4,660/ac (the budget's own yield and price assumption)

$2,746/ac of operating cost ÷ the price above = 236 50-lb bushel/ac just to cover cash costs

preplant
$8,350
$835/ac
growing
$7,989
$799/ac
harvest
$6,000
$600/ac
marketing
$4,400
$440/ac
finance
$719
$72/ac

Source: Sweetpotato — 2025 — NC State Extension — Agricultural & Resource Economics, 2025

2028Cover crop / rest year

10 acres
Revenue
$0
Cost
$650
Profit
-$650
Profit / acre
-$65

No cash crop planned. A rest year carries seed and establishment cost with no sales.

preplant
$650
$65/ac

Source: Your own cover-crop cost entry

Month-by-month cash flow

MonthCostsRevenueNetRunning balance
Apr 26$15,400$0-$15,400-$15,400
May 26$15,400$0-$15,400-$30,800
Jun 26$15,400$0-$15,400-$46,201
Jul 26$32,692$64,400$31,708-$14,493
Aug 26$32,692$64,400$31,708$17,215
Sep 26$42,535$64,400$21,865$39,079
Mar 27$17,220$0-$17,220$21,859
Jun 27$2,663$0-$2,663$19,196
Jul 27$2,663$0-$2,663$16,533
Aug 27$2,663$0-$2,663$13,870
Sep 27$5,200$23,300$18,100$31,970
Oct 27$5,919$23,300$17,381$49,352
May 28$8,350$0-$8,350$41,002
Sep 28$650$0-$650$40,352

Deepest point: Jun 2026.

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. 13 published budgets are loaded. Planting and harvest months are the standard Zone 7–9 windows the budgets are written around, not your farm's schedule. Run it on your own fields.