Plan your crew before the season starts.

Labor shortages and rising AEWRs make headcount the make-or-break question on every specialty crop farm. Enter your crop mix and acres — we'll model weekly labor demand, total cost at your region's wage rate, and exactly how many workers you'll need at peak.

Labor Planner & Cost Calculator

How much labor will your season actually need?

Add your crops and acres. We'll estimate total field + pack-shed hours, the cost at your region's wage rate, and the peak week when you'll need the most workers on the ground.

Region

Base wage $15/hr · loaded $18/hr

Benefits & overhead %

FICA, UI, workers' comp, H-2A housing.

Hours / worker / week

Used to convert peak-week hours to headcount.

Crop mix

Crop	Acres	Hrs / ac	Total hrs	Cost
22-week season · 6 operations		171	855	$15,125
12-week season · 5 operations		115	690	$12,206

Total labor hours

1,545

11 ac total

Total labor cost

$27,331

$2,485/ac

Peak week

Wk 11

156 hrs

Peak headcount

@ 50 hrs/wk

Weekly labor demand

Peak Wk 11 · 156 hrs

Saved scenarios

Snapshot the current crop mix + region + wage settings, then compare side-by-side. Stored in your browser.

No saved scenarios yet. Adjust your crop mix and click Save snapshot to start comparing.

Source: Coefficients from university extension enterprise budgets (UC Davis, UGA, NC State, Penn State, Cornell 2022–2024). Wage rates from USDA NASS 2024 Farm Labor Survey. Estimates only — mechanization, yield, and trellis system shift hours significantly.

Peak headcount is the busiest single week divided by your hours-per-worker setting, rounded up. Plan H-2A filings and crew agreements around it.

Labor is the largest controllable cost on a specialty farm.

BAU's crop planning engine factors labor availability into every rotation recommendation — so you don't end up with three peak harvests in the same week.

Benchmark input costs Join the NC pilot